There are least two ways that you can tell Scott Malsin has become old-shoe comfortable entering the final year of his first term on the City Council.
• With increasing regularity at the Monday night meetings, he leans his now-mature and hirsute head against the headrest atop his swivel chair on the dais, telegraphing a message of either disinterest or displeasure to his colleagues.
Although more frankly outspoken than when he came to the Council three years ago, he presents a fascinating study as he wordlessly sways his chair, as if to punctuate his feelings.
• The other distinction is that Mr. Malsin is far less reluctant than he used to be to forcefully launch a tart attack on a peer whom he believes has erred.
During his year as Mayor, he had memorable and succinct exchanges with the Vice Mayor, Gary Silbiger, and last Monday night there was another patch of ripe repartee.
Three of Mr. Malsin’s colleagues were deeply engaged in debating whether the City Council should have a written policy to guide its annual in-house election of a new Mayor.
Their obvious conclusion was affirmative.
Just as a wild guess, some persons in Council Chambers deduced that Mr. Malsin disagreed with the whole premise.
Revisiting a Wounded Moment
One clue: By the way he dropped his head back into the high-top portion of his swivel chair.
Another clue: For stretches, he appeared to be studying the ceiling directly overhead.
When his turn came, Mr. Malsin reopened a controversy from last year’s election of officers.
In a bold strike for a freshman member, Chris Armenta, a friend of the veteran but often isolated Councilman Silbiger, had broken with loose tradition and nominated both a Mayoralty candidate, Mr. Malsin, and a choice for Vice Mayor, Mr. Silbiger, in a single motion.
This way, Mr. Armenta sought to assure that Mr. Silbiger would spend his final year on the Council serving as Mayor.
Except the long-term portion of the strategy blew up. Mr. Silbiger’s scheme was circumvented, and Andy Weissman, last year’s Chair of the Redevelopment Agency, was elected Mayor last month.
Before issuing a scolding in the direction of the Councilman he blamed for the present brouhaha over How to Pick a Mayor, Mr. Malsin said last Monday that Mr. Weissman should have been elected Vice Mayor a year ago.
What Might Have Been
If only Mr. Armena had not wrapped his double nomination into a single motion, that is the way it would have played out, he suggested.
Not because — or just because — Mr. Weissman is a nice guy. Rather, since Mr. Weissman was the top votegetter in the April ’08 election that should have put him on the fast track to becoming Mayor, according to one of the about-to-be-adopted election guidelines.
At this point, Mr. Armenta and Mr. Malsin exchanged knifing glances and a dash of salty rhetoric.
Still later, Mr. Malsin handed encomiums to his colleague. “I like Christopher,” he said. “He is a pleasant and soft-spoken person with a good mind.”
Never a cheerleader for Mr. Silbiger or his unique causes, Mr. Mayor tossed him a bouquet of words that might have caused a stronger man to pinch his nose.
Why, oh why, Mr. Malsin wondered later, was the City Council — needlessly? — going through a lengthy debate over how to elect a new mayor, a hollow exercise he deemed more bothersome than worthwhile?
At the bottom, the New York native questioned the wisdom of a time-gobbling discussion on the dais that now has led to complex, labor-intensive research assignment for a city staff that generally is regarded as burdened with an outsized load.
“My only issue,” said Mr. Malsin, “is whether asking the staff to formulate an election policy from the materials we have given them is a productive use of their time when the city is facing issues that are truly serious.
“I don’t think so. I don’t believe that having (an expensive) attorney spending hours on this project is not productive.
“This is fairly wasteful of staff’s precious time. This assignment will take them away from something that serves the public much more.”
As for his accelerating raw candor:
Mr. Malsin said he spoke so frankly at the meeting “because I have a tendency to do what I think is right. I was trying to be polite and to be sensitive toward people’s feelings.”
