City council takes the cowardly way out

There was no indication that the city council would be addressing the issue of mayoral succession tonight. It was not in the agenda, and there was no hint anything had already been decided. But at the end of the meeting they announced that the council had voted earlier today, at a private meeting no less, to proceed with a special election. Lovely Warren, the city council chairperson, did mention that for legal reasons this cannot be official, but this is the decision and the formalities will be done in January when appropriate. It is astounding that they did this in a closed session and without any announcement or chance for more public input. It is almost as if they are ashamed of their conduct and wanted to make sure the public could not voice their opinion, nor could they continue to bother them. This is a pathetic day for democracy as the Democratic Party has decided to ignore the will of the people and have the power brokers appoint the successor. If this was a different country, like Iran, Bolivia, or Sudan, they would be called a dictatorship for actions such as this, but here in Rochester, in America, we call this democracy. I call this shameful.