Scranton City Council is looking for applicants to fill the seat soon to be vacated by Councilman Bill Courtright.  There are two serious contenders out there, Tom Charles and Gary DiBileo.  There are likely more interested (although with the level of discourse there being on par with a nuisance bar, why people would want to be on Council, I don’t know), but we haven’t heard the names just yet.

In the case of Gary DiBileo, he’s been there before and has experience.  He also has some sense of decor, but the decider in this case is Janet Evans, and the likelihood that she’ll pick Gary is low, given her huge ego.  Sharing the stage isn’t something that Evans enjoys.

Tom Charles, on the other hand, makes some sense.  He isn’t as much of an electoral powerhouse as DiBileo.  It also gives the Evans team an interesting out.  The budgets and legislation Evans proposes is often totally unrealistic.  With a super-majority, she would have to put her money where her mouth is.  The results would be disasterous for the city.  If Tom Charles gets picked, he would owe Evans, so residents could expect some cooperation between then.  But Charles is his own man, and would likely vote against serious issues in which he disagreed with the Evans bloc.  This would nullify the super-majority effect, and give Evans somebody to blame for the lack of reform that would come from her Council.

We shall see.