8/11/2019 Sanders Wins the Battle | Vanguard Press | May 29, 1983

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Winning smiles ..Mayor Sanders and Republican Alderwoman Diane Ga/Jagber after Gallagberdecided to vote for Sanders'development office.

S a n d e r s W i n s t h e B a t t le By Hamilton E. Davis

BURLINGTON

~

fter harassing Burlington

Mayor Bernard Sanders

without cease for two

years, the Board of Aldermen

gave him the keys to the city

Monday. Whether they intended

to or not is open to question.

The keys came in the form of

approval of the mayor's proposedo f f ic e o f e c on o m i c a n d c o m m u -

nity development, anew arm of

government that will have a staff

of six, and a budget of more

than a million dollars in federal

money.

Most important, itwill answer

directly to the mayor and the

aldermen - which will inevitably

in practice mean the mayor-

without a commission to snarl

up the works. And it will have a

mandate to deal with the city's

most pressing problems - hous-ing, the waterfront, youth pro-

grams, the works.

In 99 cases out of 100, you

would not get such a crucial

d e ci s io n o n s o crucial an issue

without a titanic, behind-the-

scenes struggle. In 75 cases out

of a hundred.you would not get

it without buying several poli-

ticians at high prices or fighting

a tong war.

In fact, the landslide appar-

ently wasn't triggered by anythingS O m u nd an e as a t o ng WAr; it

WdS set off ruther by a series of

comments from local business-

men to the effect that if the

aldermen are concerned with

the best interests of the city, they

would go along with the mayor.

Richard Feeley, a local realtor

said that he was disappointed to

see the board so badly split at a

t i m e w h e n it i s a t a crossroadsin its development. "I haven't

heard anything of a positive note

coming from my right hand side

of the