When a visitor to City Hall this afternoon observed that Gary Silbiger’s final meeting as a colorful member of the City Council on Monday night marks the end of an era, he was corrected by a witty woman who cracked, “End of an error is more like it.”
The terms “peculiar” and “farewell” rarely end up in the same sentence.
But the polar opposite sentiments they represent probably will define the mixed mood on the dais when the curtain rises for the last time at 7 o’clock for the term-limited progressive.
It is more than an incidental detail that Interim City Manager Lamont Ewell will make the first official appearance of an expected four-month stint at the meeting. But his debut likely will be drowned out after the first minutes.
If the eight years of Mr. Silbiger’s two terms have been instructive, the lesson is he will not leave the stage quietly.
He will be remembered as a defiantly consistent minority of one whose succinct mantra has been unswerving:
“Better to Lose Than Compromise.”
He may have been on the south end of more 4 to 1 vote than any City Councilman in recent decades.
Privately called “the most divisive member I can ever remember,” and sometimes worse in public, Mr. Silbiger has been a persistent advocate of a barrel full of populist staples, including free speech and aggressive, influential, nearly controlling community involvement.
A novelty when he was elected in ’02 because of his extraordinary grittiness in fighting for progressive rights, he soon evolved into a champion of uncommonly hopeless causes.
Admiration by colleagues for his resolute defense of left-end causes melted more quickly than it had materialized when they concluded, disappointingly, that it was not in Mr. Silbiger’s makeup to compromise.
Ever.
On anything.
He interpreted compromise as weakness.
Council members viewed him as joyless and stubborn.
Gradually, his colleagues stepped away from him.
Except for the last two years when Vice Mayor Chris Armenta occasionally — but only on scattered evenings — stood by his friend, Mr. Silbiger spent most of his second term in isolation. The longer he served, the more emboldened other members felt to criticize him.
Perhaps Mr. Silbiger’s most rewarding moment was the city’s formal recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday with two days of celebrations, at the Senior Center.
A dash of irony will underlie Mr. Silbiger’s closing night. Two of his drum-beating causes are on the agenda, public notification and the status of certain commissions. However, they will only be addressed peripherally by the City Council. But this may not deter Mr. Silbiger in his final opportunity to correct perceived wrongs.
The next Council meeting will be two weeks after the April 13 election, on Monday, April 26.
