Goddard Mayor Hunter Larkin, you’re no Steve Jobs | Opinion

It’s been a rough last few weeks out in Goddard — from a palace coup that took over city government to a budding insurrection in less than a month.

For those keeping score at home:

▪ Hunter Larkin, who had stepped down as mayor last May amid ethics questions over his chumminess with developers and favors that he did for them, re-seized the office last month.

▪ Two Larkin yes-men were appointed to seats on the council.

▪ The displaced mayor, who’d served on the council for 23 years, quit in disgust.

▪ The new council, within minutes of taking office, fired 19-year City Administrator Brian Silcott without explanation, and Thatcher Moddie, the assistant city administrator, quit the next day.

▪ MSNBC and other national media picked up the story, making Goddard a poster child for shady government.

Before Monday’s City Council meeting, the first since Larkin’s faction took over City Hall, more than 60 community members met for an hour and a half at a park picnic shelter to plan how to recall Larkin — and maybe the entire council that put him where he is.

And at the meeting itself, about the same number of people packed the council chamber and another 30 or so overflowed into the hallway.

A parade of residents came forward, many of them demanding Larkin’s resignation over his conflicts of interest, a DUI conviction in September, and for generally bringing national disgrace down upon the city.

And then things got weird.

In a rambling address, Larkin wandered about the room likening himself to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Yeah, that Steve Jobs.

He recited this Jobs quote:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while others may see you as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the ones who think they can change the world are the ones who do.

About the one thing most people at the meeting seemed to agree on was that Larkin is, in fact, one of the crazy ones.

“To me it was a joke,” said Bill Woods, who minutes earlier had called for Larkin’s resignation. “I just don’t trust the guy. I don’t think he has the best interest of our town. I have no idea why they fired the city manager . . . It doesn’t smell good.”

It sure doesn’t.

Larry Zimmerman, the former mayor who resigned over Larkin’s antics, said he and Silcott had intercepted Larkin on plans to spend $500,000 of public money to help pay for a developer to build a sewer lift for his project. Another time, it was $300,000 to build a roundabout road into Genesis Health Clubs’ new sports complex on the east side of town.

The sports project is already getting almost $26 million in taxpayer support through sales tax and revenue bonds, commonly known as STAR bonds.

It’s evident that the Goddard City Council is in a crisis of trust. Larkin believes the group’s actions and demonstrated stewardship of city business will remedy that over time.

It’s not off to a good start.

The council on Monday approved severance packages for the fired administrators. Silcott will get four months’ pay and Moddie three months, totaling about $70,000.

The city will also pay their COBRA health insurance benefits for those months. But nobody at the meeting knew how much that is and the amount isn’t in the severance agreement.

Worse, nobody even thought to ask.

Later — acting on complaints from a couple of affected landowners — the council voted to stop trying to acquire property through eminent domain for a site to build a new community center and library.

That snap judgment, minutes in the making, abandoned years of legal work and costs and will undoubtedly make it more expensive to obtain a site in the future.

Realistically, the citizens’ recall effort is probably doomed to fail.

State recall law is so politician-friendly that about the only way to get rid of one is if they murder somebody or are in a coma.

There’s only one consolation for the Goddard citizens troubled by the strange turn their city has taken without their democratic consent. The council primary will be in August and the general election in November.

Here’s hoping that not too much havoc gets wrought by then.