Feisty Franklin finally snaps at Norwood - UPDATED

What took her so long?

Since January, Councilwoman Mary Norwood has campaigned for mayor in large part by dissing Shirley. Not directly, mind you. I have yet to hear her attack Franklin by name or enumerate her failings. But Norwood has pursued a passive-aggressive smear against City Hall and, by implication, the mayor. Shirley has mostly sat by silently, but this week she snapped.

It began the morning after the murder of Standard bartender John Henderson, when Norwood appeared at the photo-op vigil to lay the blame for the robbery/shooting at the mayor’s feet for having furloughed police officers.

“What we have seen is cuts in police hours made without consultation and collaboration,” she declared. But that wasn’t exactly true; Franklin had previously argued that the city didn’t have enough money to keep all employees at full force without a tax increase. Norwood opposed the increase, but never suggested an alternative .

Throughout the mayor’s race, Norwood has criticized the city’s bookkeeping. Fair enough; city finances famously ran aground in early ‘08 because of lousy accounting practices that had persisted for decades. But, again, Norwood hasn’t proposed any solutions; instead, she simply dismisses the city’s budget as impenetrable, inscrutable, unknowable. As I’ve said before, boasting that you can’t make heads or tails of the city’s finances wouldn’t seem to be the smartest campaign strategy.