Risinger Resigns Early - February 28

Good job Dale. Hard to get much done when you are the minority party.

I believe I see the big picture now. Here is the plan I believe was conceived by the movers and shakers in the area:

We need a replacement for Dale. Mayor Jim Ardis is the most likely candidate for the Repblicans. We will need someone to replace Ardis and Moore. Most qualified candiate is Pat Urich. Urich is offered the job as City Manager with the City Manger's job descriptions altered to give Urich more power than any City Manger in recent history.

The plan includes the reisgnation of Urich several months before Risinger's resignation.

Eric Turner will replace Ardis as interim Mayor. Remember the email I received from Republicans Ardis, Montelongo, Spain and McCoy, all Reublicans, asking me to support Turner for another council term. That allows one minority to assume a management role although the position of Mayor will be a figurehead simiair to Joe Biden.

Expect few dominos to really fall. Ardis will need to be replaced which will be done by law. Or perhaps, Ardis replacement will come from one of the candidates or oncumbenets runing for the April electio as one more candidates with less votes wll automatically become seated as the councilperson to replace Ardis on the horseshoe.

Over at the County, the Democrats will appoint Associate Administrator Scott Sorrell as Interim Administrator and Katy Van Beek will be appointed to fill Sorrels position.

Urich will be close at hand to assist Sorrell since the whole idea is to combine more city/county services into some form of Uni-Gov with Urich eventually holding the top spot.

Makes sense? It does to me and I generally support the plan.

And Turner gets the Mayorship he has long coveted but fortunately he will be mainly a figurehead.

Urich is the man of the hour and the man of Peoria's future.

I believe I have it right but maybe not. Both Spain and Riggenbach have higher ambitions.

The results of the upcoming April election I believe will be of less iportance tnan the following election elections for Mayor and Council.

Speculatio? We'll see.

I knocked this out between tennis on Longboat Key and heading for dinner. My spell-check isn't working so forgive my typo errors. Be back in Peoria soon.