THE MAYOR AND MR. KESPOHL: High marks from unexpected places

COLUMBIA, 9/22/10  (Beat Byte) --  Columbia Mayor Robert McDavid, M.D. and Third Ward Councilman Gary Kespohl are getting kudos from unexpected quarters:  populist liberals who supported their opponents.

 

From working to restore fire department funding to pushing for a higher allocation of city parking fees to general services, Dr. McDavid (left) and Mr. Kespohl (below) have shown what one liberal constituent speaking privately and informally called "a contrarian streak.  I like the way they're questioning things.  I've been really impressed with the mayor."   

 

"I'm surprised frankly," said another populist-type.   "I wouldn't have expected this, especially watching the April elections unfold." 

 

In a letter Saturday to the Columbia Daily Tribune, Pednet director Ian Thomas "commended" both men -- for being pedestrian friendly.   Charging the city's parking utility a higher PILOT fee, an idea McDavid introduced on the David Lile radio show, would help move city parking profits into "necessary programs that promote the long-term sustainability of city services such as fire, police and mass transit," Thomas said.

 

Largely supported by the pro-business Columbia Chamber of Commerce, McDavid, Kespohl, and Fourth Ward Councilman Daryl Dudley seemed to promise a return to the "pavement and bulldozer" metaphor that has come to define a generation of local developers, both rightly and wrongly.

 

Nearly six months into their terms, the Mayor and Third Ward Councilman appear instead to be leading a priorities-based discussion with a populist bent.  Kespohl has been following through on a campaign promise to cut Council member meals and travel -- an approach with which I'm less than ecstatic (Council members have few perks as it is) -- but that nonetheless builds a foundation of moral authority for more contentious decisions. 

 

McDavid was the only public official I heard walking back rhetoric about the National Bikers Roundup and the first public official I've ever heard suggest that a city profit center -- the parking monopoly -- equitably contribute profits to other city services.   He's also the only Council member suggesting a second look at utility rate hikes, basing his argument on the idea that rate hikes in down economies sting the average person most of all. 

 

McDavid showed a contrarian streak on the Boone Hospital board, when in 2006 he led the charge to reduce gargantuan hospital management fees to St. Louis-based BJC Healthcare.