Editorials

This spring, graduate students from the University of Alabama held a community forum at Oxford City Hall, where residents mingled with politicians and offered their thoughts on Calhoun County's expanding southern city.

Above all, the UA students learned two things that night: (1) Many Oxford residents enjoy their city; and (2) Oxford residents abhor headlines in The Star that detail the dysfunctional, unproductive relationship between Mayor Leon Smith and the City Council.

Wonder what those residents think today?

The latest soap-opera episode in Oxford has apparently closed with what passes as a happy ending, though there's little pleasing about the whole affair. The City Council apologized to Alton Craft, the city's finance director, who had accused council members of conducting a "witch hunt" by asking for copies of detailed reports of Oxford's finances. Craft turned over some, though not all, of the requested information — not the least of which showed that Oxford has about $95 million in reserves.

That Craft didn't turn over all of the information, or provide copies of the public documents to the media or residents, retains this whole deal's sour smell.

Meanwhile, Smith had no comment to a Star reporter about Tuesday's events, his usual operating procedure.

Can Oxford residents who hate seeing the infighting between the mayor and the council rest easy?

Of course not. It's an election year — election day is only a month away — and tensions within city government in Oxford are palpable. The stress-filled tentacles of the mayoral election between Smith, who's seeking a seventh term, and those who support Councilman Greg Thrower seemingly stretch into many parts of the city's operations. If you're in Oxford, watch where you step.

This latest tussle is but one example. For weeks, Smith has accused the council of "wasteful spending;" this year's opening of the city's new library, an impressive facility just up the hill behind City Hall, only heightened that accusation. The council, defending itself and seeking information on the payment of two men who'd been added to the city payroll, asked for detailed financial reports. Smith initially balked, and then said he'd charge the council $2 a page for the information.

The result is sad and predictable. More finger-pointing, more accusations between the mayor's office and council chambers, and more time spent with nonsense rather than doing the city's business. For Oxford, it's all one big embarrassment.

Regardless of who holds the offices of Oxford's city government this fall, it's imperative that this scenario isn't revisited. It's too late to repair these relationships; they can't be fixed. The rift between the Smith camp and the council is Grand Canyon-wide. And it's downright laughable that a council can't request the city's financial reports without phony accusations of a witch-hunt and a possible lawsuit.

The council deserves that information, as do the taxpayers of the city. It's not the mayor's information to hide from public view.

That's not good government. But good government is what the residents of Oxford deserve.