The City Council, in its infinite wisdom, is scheduled to reconvene its inquiry into public corruption. It’ll be the Grand Inquisition’s first meeting since October.
Thanks for the early Christmas present.
Our skeptical side expects today’s session to be hardly different than its predecessors. Mayor Gene Robinson won’t take part. Councilmen will grill a select few — city employees or police officers, perhaps — about protocol and rules and other mundane topics. They’ll don Perry Mason disguises and probe for answers. They’ll act as if they’re in Congress, sitting on an investigative committee that’s charged with rooting out answers to questions of national import.
That same skeptical side also expects today’s session to be yet another waste of time: No pertinent answers to pertinent questions, only power plays by a few councilmen whose agendas are frittering away taxpayer money on this useless exercise.
Several months of inquiry hearings have done more to expose their pretense than anything this editorial page could propose. They’ve been a blight on Anniston government.
Today, perhaps the best approach is to hope Councilman Ben Little is true to this word regarding the inquiry. On Tuesday, Little told The Star, “I think they (the public) want to see the end. Do what we need to do. End it. Take action where we need to take action, and let’s move on.”
Yes, councilman.
Let’s end this inquiry.
From its inception, this unwarranted circus has unnecessarily spent city money (nearly $40,000), embarrassed city employees who were questioned, insulted members of the Anniston Police, and uncovered none of the corruption that the council promised when the inquiry was first convened.
That a member of the state Legislature, Rep. Randy Wood, R-Saks, felt so compelled to introduce legislation designed to remove the city’s inquiry power shows how far this fiasco has gone. That’s not Wood’s business. It’s the city’s business.
And, unfortunately, Anniston has to endure at least one more inquiry session. C’mon, councilmen. Do as Councilman Little said. End it. And move on.
