by Charles Memminger
Monday, October 7, 1996
I don't know what his luck was like before he was elected city councilman, but he's on a roll now. He's won two drawings recently for trips; one to Las Vegas and one to Seoul, Korea. Some folks can go their whole lives without winning such prizes, but Jon's lucky.
Now, there are some suspicious types out there who would point out that Jon won the door prizes at events sponsored by politically connected organizations, organizations with more than a little interest in the workings of City Hall. One was Unity House, a powerful union group, and the other was Dura/Constructors, a local business whose principals have a long history of making political contributions.
Now, I'm sure these drawings were completely on the up and up. The fact that a city councilman won some major prizes was just, well, lucky.
But Jon's gotta face reality. Not everyone is as open-minded as I am. When they see a councilman winning big prizes from politically connected organizations, they start thinking, hey, maybe these guys were just trying to butter up the councilman. You know, soften him up so that when something comes up before the Council concerning them, they'd have a sympathetic ear.
That's hard to believe. And I'm sure Jon doesn't believe it. But he said it himself, "perception becomes reality."
He took the golfing trip to Vegas with the Unity House guys. But somewhere along the line, it occurred to him that it didn't look so good. He's a young politician, but he's not stupid. And so he paid his way back home and agreed to repay Unity House for the door prize. Whew.
Even so, he was miffed that the media, of which he used to be a member, bothered to write about it. In fact, his wife, Kim, wrote a letter to the editor last week, chastising the newspaper. She said the headline should have been: "Councilman refused to take free Vegas trip."
Which is fine, except that he didn't refuse to take it. He took it. He just decided later to pay for it himself.
He should have refused to take it. It would seem like a no-brainer for even a novice politician.
He did better when he won the other door prize for the trip to Seoul. He didn't take it. Whew. It's a booger being a lucky guy.
I don't know how much more luck Jon can take. Jon, listen. I've got three words of advice for you: Just Say No. Whenever that crazy luck of yours kicks in, Just Say No.
It's easy to do. If someone suddenly wants to give you something for nothing, you say, "No thanks. Nope. Nyet. Nein. Nay. Negative."
The thing I hate to see is a nice guy like Jon slipping into a pattern that many politicians fall into. They cut things a bit too close to the ethical bone and then end up having to make explanations. Those explanations inevitably end up as headlines. And those headlines inevitably end up in commercials paid for by campaign opponents.
Jon has done nothing unethical. But why, in his first elected position, does he cut it so close?
Jon and I have had this conversation before. And I get the sense that he doesn't think I understand the situation. I'm the media. I'm on the outside looking in. Just like he used to be as a television reporter.
But I do understand. It's cool to hang out with powerful people and play golf. It's even kind of intoxicating. But people aren't asking him to play golf with them because they suddenly realize what a charming guy he is. They are doing it because he's a city councilman.
And he got that job not by luck, but by hard work and with the help of a lot of people. These are people who don't get invited to play golf with big shots. And they very rarely win door prizes.
