New council vs. the old council

The end of one thing is usually the beginning of something else. That’s especially true of election cycles, but sometimes, as the French say, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”

If we remember our high school coursework, that means “the more things change, the more they remain the same.”

Sadly, that’s true for the Westminster City Council. As evidenced by Wednesday’s marathon bitterfest, the results of the November election haven’t produced a more congenial group of folks at the helm.

In a meeting that lasted five hours, the council at first took a ton of abuse from members of the public, then turned on each other. The topic was whether to cancel the Quang Tri monument project, but the topic sometimes hardly matters.     

The “rules of conduct” adopted to try to impose some civility were as effective as the League of Nations was in preventing World War II.

Chi Charlie Nguyen, the new mayor, wasn’t much  more successful  in keeping order than his predecessor (Tri Ta, now a state Assemblyman). Speakers and council members interrupted each other, talked over each other, hurled insults, threats and allegations around in a display of incivility that would make a schoolyard full of children seem angelically polite.

When will it end? Not anytime soon, it appears, if Wednesday’s meeting is an example of the “change” the new council stands for.