There has to be more to the spat between Mayor Alan Autry and City Council President Jerry Duncan than what we've been told. Nothing else explains Duncan breaking down on the council dais on Thursday after complaining that Autry said "vicious and cruel" things about him.

This is what we know so far from today's Bee story:

Autry said Duncan was using "distortion" and "deception" in lobbying against the mayor's proposal to attack gang problems in Fresno with intervention and prevention programs and aggressive police action. The mayor was responding to Duncan's comments in a budget hearing that Autry was trying to turn the Police Department into a "social services agency."

Okay, call me naive, but where's the vicious and cruel part?

Posted by Jim Boren at 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

It's time for someone to tell Mayor Alan Autry that his State of the City speech shouldn't be running so long. No one close to him seems willing to say anything. A timid staff does not serve the mayor very well. But it was typical Autry on Thursday droning on about the State of the City well beyond what was reasonable to keep an audience that was on its lunch hour.

Autry needs to use this speech to make quick points about the direction of the city and not put the audience to sleep. Like his past efforts, this one rambled into territory that he has no authority over. But don't let that technicality get in the way of making a long speech. Autry's State of the City speech Thursday lasted 80 minutes, according to the story in today's Bee.

Let's give some perspective on the mayor's spech about the city. . . President Bush's State of the Union speech in February lasted 51 minutes. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's State of the State speech in January lasted 23 minutes. Autry talked longer than both of them combined.

Posted by Jim Boren at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)