Mr. Ford says that anyone who accuses him of jumping the queue to get service is an “outright liar.” But what does he think he was doing when he demanded urgent action from city staff on unscheduled work at his family business? Every city department has a pile of pending resident complaints to work through and a finite amount of time and energy to deal with them. It is obvious that when they were falling all over each other to fulfill the mayor’s demands, they had less time to deal with the demands of ordinary residents. When the mayor’s file went to the top of the pile, someone else’s gathered a little more dust.
Whether or not the mayor meant to jump the queue, that was the effect of involving high-level officials in his personal beef. It short-changed other residents. It consumed the valuable time of busy city staff. It was completely inappropriate conduct for a mayor, especially one who complains ceaselessly about how other city politicians waste taxpayers’ money to further their own ends...
If it isn’t asking for special treatment when a mayor demands urgent work to beautify the street in front on his family business before its anniversary party, then what is?
If a mayor asks his city staff to do something for him, it is necessarily different than a request from an ordinary person. He is the mayor, with all the power of the office behind him. Mr. Ford must have known staff would hop to it when he made his request. They did. Of course he got special treatment.
