Webb’s gone; time for city to look ahead

The forced departure of City Administrator John Webb provides Clarendon with a chance to chart a new course and make plans for the future… as soon as it gets over the past.

The Board of Aldermen fired Webb on March 23 with a 3-2 vote at a called meeting, and those in favor of giving him the ax have been tight-lipped on their reasons.  Mayor Chris Ford has consistently cited “a lack of confidence” as leading to the termination. It’s a phrase that says a lot even though it says nothing specifically.

It wasn’t too much earlier in the year when the mayor and Alderman Larry Hicks both expressed their satisfaction with Webb’s performance. Something must have happened that made Ford lose confidence and led Hicks to actually make the motion to dump Webb. With all the deliberations happening in executive session, we’ll probably never know for sure.

What’s done is done, and it’s time to move on. The board needs to get back to the business of governing the city, and that means putting their differences on the Webb issue to the side for the good of Clarendon.

There is a lot going on right now. The interim administrator, Phyllis Jeffers, is taking the helm and making preparations for upcoming budget decisions, and two ladies are learning the ropes of the city secretary’s job. With an election coming up and at least one new face definitely coming on the board, it will be a while before we have anything resembling normalcy at City Hall.

Once things settle down, it will be time to look at finding a permanent replacement for Webb.

Yes, we do need a city administrator – someone whose job it is to oversee the $1.7 million annual operation of the City of Clarendon; someone who is knowledgeable about codes, municipal law, public works, and a host of other issues; and someone who can provide leadership on a daily basis.

Whoever that person is needs to also understand a few basic facts.  Number one, Clarendon cannot possibly afford a police department so don’t even bring it up – just work with the sheriff as best you can. Number two, don’t intentionally and willfully antagonize city volunteers.

Number three, know how to fix a pothole but don’t think it’s your job to do it – just make sure it gets done. And number four, listen – to the board, to your staff, and to your citizens.

Clarendon is a city with great potential. We have a great town, but it could be so much more than it is. We need to realize that ourselves, and we need someone to lead City Hall who believes the same thing. Then we all need to work together to make some things happen around here.

It is time to move forward.

Meanwhile…

If any third-rate, backwater nation ever wanted to attack the United States of America, now would be the time to do it after President Barack Obama showed his foreign policy naiveté last week and publicly and proudly limited the circumstances in which America would launch a nuclear strike.

This is administration has seems to have an interesting philosophy – a strong oppressive government at home and a weak, sissified posture abroad. The president hugs on dictators, bows before foreign monarchs, and then publicly snubs America’s greatest allies.

Last week he took the nuclear option off the table for almost every non-nuclear nation for anything they might do to us, including terrorist, biological, chemical, and cybernetic attacks. Put poison gas in the New York subway, and Uncle Sam promises to respond with spit wads, slingshots, and economic sanctions.

It’s very idealistic to think that we can all live together in peace and harmony and that if we will just be nice, no one will ever hurt us. Unfortunately, history and human nature proves otherwise. Strength is the only sure protector of peace, and a willingness to use overwhelming power is a powerful deterrent to those who might try to hurt us.

The fact of the matter is that we are not likely to be attacked by a nuclear power because Russia and China have the sense enough to know that we will turn their countries into glow-in-the-dark parking lots. But there are fringe countries out there that despise the United States and would love to kill a few thousand people here except for the fact that we might push the button on them.

Heck, the only country we have ever nuked was a country that didn’t have nuclear weapons of its own. It worked out pretty good, too. Japan surrendered right away.

I have always believed that, for security’s sake, America must have the standing policy that we will simply and totally destroy anyone who tries to attack our sovereign soil. We shouldn’t fight endless wars; we should end them as quickly as possible. If we had dropped a nuclear bomb on the Taliban in 2001, we could have been through with this whole War on Terror mess a long time ago.  We just couldn’t get enough of the little bastards in the same place long enough to do it.

But now that option is off the table, and I fear it will soon be open season on America.