The Teflon Mayor

NBC17 ran a short piece this morning in which Mayors McAlister and Weatherly fielded questions about their towns. This short interview did a wonderful job demonstrating the differences between the two mayors. Mayor Weatherly came across as sincere, and provided direct answers to questions. Mayor McAlister came across as the consummate polished politician, evasive at best. Frankly, I think he embarrassed the town of Cary.
In the first exchange, each mayor was given 45 seconds to talk about the state of their town. Mr. McAlister stated that economic growth, roads and fiscal responsibility were the 2006 priorities for Cary, and went on to pat himself on the back for great progress in those areas. Mayor Weatherly talked about economic growth, but also about Apex's objective of managing residential growth which was under 3% in 2006.
In the next exchange, the mayors were asked if the school board was adequately representing their constituents. Mayor Weatherly went first, and gave a very direct answer: "No, they are not doing a good job." He had the facts to back this up. When Ernie got his turn, he started singing the 'we need to work with the school board' song again, and talked about the complexity of their task. No direct answer.
In the last exchange, the mayors were asked a simple question: Do you think your town would be better off with their own school system? Again, Mayor Weatherly gave a direct answer: "yes." Mayor McAlister gave a drawn out answer about MYR taking a back seat to the "long term" view of schools, and as evasive as he was I believe his answer was no. He did explain that the Town of Cary was giving 55 acres to WCPSS to site schools in our area, left out the fact that the Cary Park deeded this land to us for exactly this purpose.
Again, I think our mayor embarrased us today. I'd like him to explain the "long term" view to my kids who will be on different tracks this fall. For months, he's been talking about 'working with the school board' yet I have seen zero evidence that the Cary Town Council has had a single conversation with the school board or administration. If NBC17 has a transcript of the program I'll post it here.
As an aside, it seems the town council will be continuing to fly the "missing man formation." Here's a subject I have got to understand better