Sargent Resigns!

Yes, that's the word.

The Private Club -- dba as the Granville Township Trustees -- have already selected the new Trustee. You may think that's odd since the Trustees haven't taken applications yet, much less interviewed candidates or consulted the public.

But that's the way our Trustees do business. They hand the baton from one good ol' boy to the next. In 200 years of Granville Township history, never has a Trustee been a woman, a minority or even a Granville Village resident (part of the township). The exclusive club of hand-picked white males shall be preserved for another round.

Some background: The Trustees hate voter intrusions, so they manipulate the system in sleazy fashion, timing resignations to avoid votes on new Trustees. Instead, they hand the paid "elective office" -- and the advantage of incumbency -- to a succession of developer-friendly apparatchiks.

This time it's Wes Sargent's turn to hand his office to Bill Mason. Bill is in his 70s and has lived in Granville for 55 years. He's a former educator, a pretty good athlete, has been active in local civic groups and is known as a pretty good guy. He has no experience in urban planning issues -- the most important thing Trustees do -- and proudly declares himself a loyal supporter of developer Bill Kraner.

In other words, the Club expects him to be a compliant, developer-friendly good ol' boy. (It's never been wrong before.)

For those who don't know, our part-time Trustees (paid, with salary, health insurance and pension benefits) run Township government in a bizarre, amateurish fashion. They divide responsibilities three ways: one Trustee handles all development issues, another handles roads and the third handles public relations. The only one that really matters is the first, and developers control that position with a tight fist.

Trustee Jim Havens, a Columbus real estate development lawyer, ran it until he resigned last year. He handed the job to Trustee Bill Habig, a Columbus real estate development consultant who moved to Granville 18 months before he was given the job -- the least qualified of five applicants.

Trustee Fred Abraham oversees physical plant -- roads, snow plowing, etc. He's in charge of building a new $750,000 township garage, necessitated because of an illegal conflict of interest Fred had because he previously leased garage space to the township. He took over from Lyle King, a classic old timer who'd spent decades as a Trustee.

Wes Sargent, son of a beloved grocer and rec commission stalwart, is the pr guy. He smiles, waves and does what he's told. He's the public smiley face that stands in front of the unpopular Havens and Habig.

The scuttlebutt was that Wes was going to resign last year so he could move to his house in Florida and hand his job to Habig. But Havens got himself into hot water. He took a job working as Kraner's lawyer at the same time he negotiated for the township to buy land from the developer for $10 million. Voters rejected the overpriced deal. Havens bailed and pretty much vanished from Granville.

Habig still got the job. That was pre-ordained. But it was Havens' seat, not Sargent's. Unlike Havens, Habig had no roots here or political acumen and his tenure has been an unmitigated disaster. But he's diligently worked for developers in ten-thumb fashion. And Wes has kept his role for an extra year, smiling, waving, defending every embarrassing Habig move. Painful to watch.

Habig's first job was to join the Kraner development team negotiating against the Granville school district. Wes "asked" him to do so. (See how it works.) Kraner, Kraner's lawyer and Habig formed one team and negotiated on the opposite side of the table from the Granville school board and its lawyer. Habig's work helped undermine the school district's effort to place development restrictions on Kraner's property, which would protect the schools and taxpayers. (Development restrictions, weakened, were later agreed to.)

Mason's job would be similar to Wes Sargent's -- smile, wave, don't think and tell the public all is grand. Developers would make the decisions. Habig would relay their wishes. Mason would present them to the public. Mason's special qualification is that he's a Kraner loyalist, having written the developer an affectionate letter offering his support against those who opposed the overpriced land deal. (What's Kraner's land worth now?)

So you see why Bill Mason is the perfect choice. A popular guy who likes developers. He'll do what he's told and then sell the tale to the public.

I hope the pre-announcement of Bill's appointment doesn't stop others from applying. We need other local actors to apply so the Trustees can put on their hilarious ensemble comedy in which they earnestly pretend to consider all candidates. The show works best when the other candidates are far more qualified than the fellow who's going to get the job. The appointment of Habig, the unqualified outsider, resulted in a bravura performance, although it could have been tightened.

The public won't get to ask questions of candidates. This isn't improv! It's scripted theatre. The Granville Sentinel is the program.

So congratulations to Bill Mason for passing the audition.

I suggest that all candidates rehearse for the show. C'mon, everyone, give it a try!

Raise your right hand. Wave it. Smile. Good!

Remember, no thinking, no talking, no reading.

Now for stage commands.

Developer says: "Sit." What do you do? That's right!

Developer says: "Stand." Perfect!

Developer says: "Zoning?" That's right. shake your head, no.

Most important. Developer says: "Sewer." That's good. But nod more vigorously. Fantastic!

Remember, keep smiling and waving.

That's great! You're ready to be a new Granville Township Trustee.

Rockon's list of attributes needed in the next Trustee is extremely insightful.

The most important qualification is diversity of opinion. Government functions best when there is open discussion from multiple points of view. A three-person board can have a hard time capturing the views and ideas of the community as a whole. That is especially true when you have a system that's being manipulated to preserve a narrow power structure. The custom of having trustees resign before their term is over, so the position can be handed to another like-minded member of the club (to use Yesman's term)is extremely unhealthy for Granville and for competent government.

As my man John McCain said, country first. The trustees should say Granville First and appoint someone who represents a different point of view. The tenor of the times is for bipartisanship. For their own good and for the good of Granville, the trustees need to make it a priority to find someone who has a perspective not currently reflected.

Suggestions for selection criteria:

Understanding of township resident preferences on development

Interest in actually communicating with constituents

Open-minded approach

Diversity of opinion - in other words someone who the two remaining trustees would be unlikely to select, but could, if they would just think about getting someone from a different mold on the board

Sharp intellect

Ability to not be offended by a suggestion that someone other than the trustees has a valuable perspective

An understanding of new development concepts (rather than an orientation to the tired old, proven unsuccessful, sprawl approach)

Understanding of Granville in general (no more imports who haven't a clue)

Long-term commitment to Granville

Such a letter suggests it was well past the time for resignation.

This apparent bitterness may well explain some of the inability to effectively communicate: he just didn't want to.

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Wes complains in his resignation letter that fulfilling public records requests was too time consuming for him. A less time-consuming alternative would have been telling the public what he was doing. If Wes was proud of trying to bring Southwest Licking sewers into Granville at the behest of developers, he should have said so. Instead, he and Habig tried to do it through secret dealings and got caught because Ohio has a public records law. If the Trustees were straight-shooters, what they do in secret would be little different that what they say in public.

Wes' final act of contempt for the public was to time his resignation so close to an election that voters don't get to pick his replacement. His fellow trustee/cronies get the job. Wes spent his seven-year career taking orders, first from Jim Havens, then from Bill Habig. Wes never understood that Granville is bigger than his clique and that government is a public trust, not a private club.

I think Wes meant well. But his world view was too narrow to let him do well. The timing of his resignation reveals his fatal flaw. To Wes, the Trustee job belongs to a small group of guys, not the public.

We can't know ALL the reasons for his departure and so let's hold off on judging his departure. I have always found Wes to be open to dialogue. We've disagreed about many of the recent actions of the trustees, but I never thought his actions were the result of ill intent.

Wes' comment "With no clerical staff, such has left Trustees spending inordinate amounts oftime fulfilling requests for information instead ofworking on positive projects within our community" is troubling. Couldn't someone be hired to fulfill these requests?

Now what are we going to do? Will another apparently "secretive pro development at any cost" trustee be appointed? Does the public have any say in who is appointed?

Why are you leaving the post? Maybe Bill Habig has a brother!