The Mayor's Boast and the City's Quiet Grumbling
Mayor Hartley claims he could easily win re-election, but labor organizers and local residents aren't buying the bravado after a year of utility rate complaints and industrial inaction.
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Mayor Hartley has found the audience section of the council chamber particularly attractive lately. During recesses, while council members gravitate toward the controller's office, his honor the mayor has bestowed his genial smile and glad hand on the people behind the railing. During this week's session, the conversation turned to the pending election. The mayor remarked that he had been urged to quit by his doctor over a year ago but stayed on to prevent city turmoil—a fact, he claimed, well known to city editors. Despite rumors that he was secretly polling the public to see if he should run again, he declared, 'Why, I could go and file for the office of mayor tomorrow, and have them all skinned by a mile.' The Labor Journal asks: on what grounds? He has failed to use his franchise powers to reduce water and light rates, he refused to intervene during last winter's streetcar strike, and he blocked a local business committee's effort to use city teams to clean the streets. The average citizen simply sneers when the mayor's confident statement is repeated.
“Why, I could go and file for the office of mayor tomorrow, and have them all skinned by a mile.”
Mayor Hartley’s brand of populist bluster and his refusal to challenge powerful utility monopolies mirrors the persistent tension in Everett politics regarding municipal management and the influence of private corporations on local rates. Today, the debate over who controls Everett’s infrastructure—and who benefits from it—remains a central theme in city council meetings.
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