Robert Harris Wins Right To Another Term As Mayor

TW0 YEÁRS A&O, when Robert Harris made his bid for the post of mayor, we thought both he and his opponent would do well in the job. The choice is much more clear-cut this time around. Perhaps the foremost quality of the Harris administration is its open character. That is important in a city such as Ann Arbor. Mayor Harris has tried to listen to all segments of the city's population. An open administration is an accountable administration. All mayors get their share of icriticism and Harris is no tion. A mayor who gets by with very little critical appraisal of his performance isn't using his office for civic betterment. Some of the criticism directed at Harris has í been to the point. Restraint broke down when the mayor early on called his opponent a right wing extremist. We don't feel that kind of attack was at all necessary. It cast no credit on Mr. Harris or his office. The mayor's record in policecommunity relations is less than : stellar. He sidestepped the sensi:tive issue of a civilian review board by appointing an ombuds:man to handle complaints. Yet Harrïssêemed to go out of nis I way last year to come down hard I on one of the officers involved in a local disturbance. As a result I of that incident and other minor grievances, for some of which Harris was unjustly held responsible, the mayor has scant supiport among law enforcement { personnel. On the positive side, the Hu;man Rights Ordinance has been iexpanded and affirmative action programs broadened. Ann Arbor : has made progress in f ormulating ; wise zoning policies, in the envi' ronmental protection field and in ; public housing, though progress here can't all be credited to the ■ party in power now. (next_page_please)
CITIZENS sometimes forget that Ann Arbor has a well-paid professional staff which really runs the city, and that the mayor and council are unpaid fellow citizens giving generously of their time and energies in the community's behalf. Mayor Harris, by his method of operation, has invited criticism at times that might otherwise have been directed at department heads. He has chosen to "wield power" in places where the city charter allows it, and he and his administration, by a show of arrogance, got '" off to a oaü start two years ago if they ever had thoughts of gaining Republican cooperation on major issues. The mayor has irritated many j townspeople by his obvious woo! ing of the student vote, and now a student faction has put up its own candidate for mayor and threatens Second Ward Democrat Robert Faber's council seat with a write-in candidate. Their votes, which might have gone for Faber, could tip the scales for Republican Don Robinson, an able contender in a ward almost evenly divided between the two major parties. # REPUBLICAN Mayoralty candidate Jack Garrís has campaigned hard and has a strong following; many citizens who have rallied to his banner are unhappy with long-haired students, the BAM incidents on the campus, problems in the schools, the drug culture and street crime. Most of these problems occur in every city in Michigan, but few Michigan municipalities have parI tisan government as Ann Arbor has. It is natural that blame-fix- ing and scapegoat-seeking should become a spring sport here every two years. How well Mayor Harris handled his involvement in the really serious incidents of the past two years is a subject for debate. Our belief is that while they were bad enough they could have been much worse had not the mayor worked to keep Communications open and calm the participants. It is often said that the pólice are "shackled" here and students can get away with anything, but there has beenapáraaeof students through the courts of Ann Arbor recently as the result of campus I incidents. ♦ IN OUR VIEW, Garrís' 1 tions" to problems he is so quick I to point out are not impressive, I some are not even logical. Worst of all, he offers simplistic 1 dies for ills that are extremely complex. The News favors Mayor Robert Harris' reelection, even though he probably will serve with a Republican-dominated City Council. That sounds like a political stalemate, but it may not be all bad. If neither party has a clear I 'field, perhaps we can go back to two or three-hour council meetings and let the professional I staff have more to do with running the city.