The Mayor of New Brighton

This Star Tribune article on the latest nonsense out of New Brighton city hall generally speaks for itself, but one passage deserves special note, as it neatly crystallizes the problem at the helm:

Instead, consultant Barb Strandell, who has worked with squabbling city councils around the region, will lead a “team-building” exercise in January that may include personality assessments.

Strandell learned how steep her challenge is at a recent preparatory session when Mayor Valerie Johnson declared: “I don’t want to walk into another meeting where the first words are, ‘You are not a dictator!’ ”

When Strandell sought to cut in with a soothing, “Well, now, just let me say …” the mayor was having none of it.

“No, I’m going to keep talking,” Johnson said. “It’s my meeting.”

Keep talking, Mayor Johnson. Keep talking.

We'll come back to this topic in the coming days.