In the midst of an acerbic disagreement among City Councilmen last Monday night over whether Vice Mayor Gary Silbiger automatically was entitled to promotion to Mayor, a shaken Mr. Silbiger suggested the following proposition.
Since the “tradition” or unwritten Council “policy” on which he had bet his entire cart of apples to become Mayor turned out to be flimsy, the obvious panacea would be to design a written rule determining order of rotation. Framed in iron, this, presumably, would guarantee a single interpretation, no deviation.
Aside from the fact that this idea was left dangling — the fate of most of Mr. Silbiger’s propositions —a written policy governing the rotation of officers is not necessarily a palliative.
Ask Joan Jakubowski, a member of the School Board for two terms, starting in1993.
Barbara Honig, Mr. Silbiger’s wife, was elected the same year, a crucial point.
Her Board peers elected Ms. Jakubowski to President before Ms. Honig.
“That result did not make the powers-that-be happy,” said Ms. Jakubowski, who identified the “powers” as Ms. Honig.
“Barbara felt she should have been President ahead of me. She had received (more popular votes) when we were elected to the Board.”
Like Clockwork — A Bad Clock
Since that disputed outcome produced sparks, School Board members agreed that a written policy on rotation would be desirable, solving potential problems for all time.
Once again, not exactly.
It is Ms. Jakubowski’s recollection that several years after they joined the Board, Ms. Honig was selected to write a seemingly airtight policy, which she believes, was unanimously approved.
Here is the policy (“The Saddest Fate of All, Silbiger’s After Seven Cool Years”).
In December of 2000, going into their final year on the School Board, both Ms. Honig and Ms. Jakubowski wanted to be President one more time.
Since Ms. Jakuboski had gone longer than any Board member without holding the President’s title, she was hoping to be elected on those grounds.
Ms. Honig, however, defeated the aspirations of Ms. Jakubowski, allowing Mr. Silbiger’s wife to ride out of office as President.
How did that happen if the written policy, in fact, was clear and precise?
“Barbara interpreted it one way and I interpreted it in another,” Ms. Jakubowski said.
What About the Sting?
Was there a flap?
“No, because I am not the type of person to cause a flap.”
Being human, though, Ms. Jakubowski acknowledged that the failure to win the Presidency in her departure year “still, perhaps a little, sticks in my craw.”
Personal races notwithstanding, she said the five Board members formed “a very cohesive group. We did not agree all the time. But we agreed to disagree, and, as I remember, most of our votes were 5 to 0.”
Ms. Jakubowski was asked if, having had disappointing face-to-face experience with written policy, whether she believes it to be a preferable idea.
Answering conditionally, she inserted a caveat.
“It may be nice to have a written policy so that people know where they stand,” Ms. Jakubowski said.
“But this kind of electoral policy is not 100 percent proof. What if someone comes along whom you don’ t believe is the best person to represent your group?”
To complete the circle, Ms. Jakubowski was told that, nine years later, her own experience had become historically relevant because Mr. Silbiger had banked on winning the Mayor’s job this week, entirely on the strength of his recollection of support-promises allegedly, and surely informally, made in the wake of last year’s Council elections.
Said Ms. Jakubowski:
“Anybody who believes anything said at election time is living in fairyland.”
