The city council needed answers from Mayor Block, so they convened a meeting in front of a packed house. Controversially, Mayor Block had issued executive orders to rezone areas for affordable housing, declare a state of emergency to get the traffic lights up to code and fire longtime government employees who weren’t fixing the city’s bureaucratic hangups. All six city council members gave speeches meant for social media clips before the mayor could defend himself.
“We all agree that the problems I’m addressing are urgent,” Mayor Block said.” We need more housing. We need stoplights that don’t lead to accidents and a permit process to host a park gathering that doesn’t take six months. I’m confused about the objection.”
“We feel,” the city council president said, motioning to her colleagues, “that you aren’t using the proper methods to make these changes.”
“Everything I’ve done is legal based on the powers given to the mayor through this city council.”
“But no one has done it before,” another member piped up. “These are unwritten rules.”
The mayor laughed. “Look, I’m not telling you how to do your job, but write down the rules and pass them as laws. I’m just trying to fix the city here. Imagine if someone came in and wanted to sell off parts of the city to our suburban neighbors for profit. That’s also allowed.”
“Well, couldn’t you just veto us?” the president suggested.
“Sure, but if the problems are big enough, you can override the vetoes. Better yet, you could pass laws that fix these problems, and I’ll sign them.”
The council sat awkwardly for a minute in silence.
“Of course, if it doesn’t work, you might not get reelected. So it’s probably not worth fixing the system.”