When Being Mayor Costs Something
By Albert B. Kelly
There are days when, as a mayor, I feel discouraged. It might be in response to a resident who is unhappy about something and vents their frustration or it might be because something I’ve said that has been misunderstood. Sometimes it is criticism whether warranted or not and at other times it may be because of the seemingly slow pace of progress on some project or initiative or it’s the lack of control whether real or imagined.
Regardless of the issue, there’s always a need for perspective. I say that because for me, on any given day, whatever I might be concerned about, it’s almost always about potholes, or budgets; trash collection or taxes or code blue to name but a few. I can do this and do it safely because I have the luxury of being a mayor here in Bridgeton, in Cumberland County, in New Jersey, in the United States of America.
But being a mayor in other places isn’t so easy. Consider what it might be like to be the mayor of the Ukrainian town of Motyzhyn as Olha Sukhenko was back in March when the Russians invaded. No doubt as the news of the invasion came close she contemplated leaving, and may well have been warned to do so. For whatever her reasons, she remained in her community with her people and for that she was summarily executed along with her family.
When the smoke clears on this war, my guess is that there will be more of these types of stories, brave men and women who chose to remain and exert whatever leadership they might on behalf of their residents. I cannot imagine the choice, nor can I imagine the anguish these people carried with them for themselves, their families, and their townspeople.
If you’ve been following the news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, you don’t have to look far to find the news reports that have Russian soldiers going from house-to-house looking to identify local officials whether mayors, the Ukrainian equivalent of a City Council person, and other municipal officials that run the local government for the express purpose of killing them, to make examples of them and to instill fear in the local populace.
Imagine yourself in some similar position whether in municipal government or on the level of a county commissioner. Would you stay? Would you cop to be an elected official, a leader of the community? I’d like to think that I would, but I’d be lying if I said there was no shred of doubt. I’d be lying if I said that I wouldn’t strongly consider getting out of Dodge. But there’s the other side of the coin, the side that actually leaves. Leaving comes with whole different set of variables.
For example, one local leader named Ihor Kostovarov, who was the head official in the towns of Staryi and Novyi Bykiv, simply got up and left when he received the news about the house-to-house searches being conducted by the Russians to find local officials. Given the level of anger on the part of those residents who remained behind, it is not at all clear that he can come back.
Perhaps worse than leaving are those local officials who decide to collaborate with the Russians to save their own skin. I recall the very disturbing film footage from World War II of men and women who collaborated with the Nazis being dragged out into the town square after a town was liberated. In some cases individuals were stripped naked and had their heads shaved, the mark Cain, and in other instances they were hanged or beaten to death in the middle of town as the citizenry looked on.
I can only imagine that a similar fate awaits those local officials who collaborate with the enemy against their own community. But then too, there is the opposite of collaboration, known as resistance.
The mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov remained in his community and refused to work with the Russians. For his part, he was held captive for over a week and was no doubt beaten. He was only spared as part of a larger prisoner exchange. When asked about it after the fact, he said it was important that the residents knew beyond any doubt that any Russian rule was only by force and therefore not legitimate. Now that’s leadership to aspire to.