Things I Don't Understand

OK, I've been mulling over yesterday's Board appointment moves, and there are a couple of things that just aren't making sense.

Mostly it's this Tonya Payne move off the URA board and onto the Housing Authority board. Now, I've always been under the impression that the URA board is a pretty sweet assignment for a councilperson -- you get to claim credit for a whole lot of projects that you may or may not have had anything to do with -- and therefore the Mayor gives this honor to someone who he/she considers an ally.

Indeed, when Allen Hertzberg started to get all up in Tom Murphy's grill, Murphy bumped him from the URA board in favor of Sala Udin. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth at this, and a sense that Hertzberg had been -- as the kids say -- pwnd and smacked down.

So, why would Ravenstahl (1) replace a loyal ally (when she decides to show up for council meetings), (2) move the ally to a less desirable position (the Housing Authority), and (3) replace said ally with someone who has not been too friendly as of late.

There is only two possible scenarios that I can think of: either the Councilwoman wanted off because the position was too politically dangerous or the Mayor wanted her off because she was too politically vulnerable.

The way I see it is this: the major development projects in the city (the casino & the arena) are located solely within the 6th Councilmatic District. Now, the Councilmatic person has not, let us be kind, been particularly popular with a large segment of her constituents. This makes one wonder if, by being on the URA board, she puts herself in a politically vulnerable position if she makes politically sensitive (and above all bad) decisions.

The Housing Authority, by comparison, is fairly safe, as far as boards go.

So why would the mayor replace her with a political (one must not go too far and say) enemy? Well, I see two options: (1) the mayor is looking to make a new friend on a very nearly evenly divided council or (2) the mayor is looking for a convenient fall guy to face the wrath of the residents of the 6th Councilmatic District.

Of course, these are just theories... I don't really understand the intricacies of Politics myself.