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could rely on the professional County engineer looking at <br /> traffic patterns , etcetera, and considering safety factors <br /> and other reasonable factors , to put the money where in <br /> this case his professional judgment it seemed to be best <br /> spent. But at the Council level, it got into all kinds of <br /> wrangles about who was going to get what, in what district, <br /> etcetera. Now that ' s a lot of power . That ' s not. . . that ' s <br /> getting in, to me, what should seem to be an administrative <br /> area, that if you' re going to have any division atall, <br /> somebody has to administer it. And in this system, the <br /> mayor administers it. But I think that ' s a very strong <br /> indication of strong. . . if we have a strong mayor , I think <br /> we have a very strong Council and I think that history has <br /> demonstrated that . <br /> GREENWELL: The mayor decided where those monies were <br /> going to be spent within the district that they were <br /> allotted. The money was derived within::those .:districts , <br /> going back into those districts . He (inaudible) chief <br /> engineer determined where the sections and roads were <br /> going to be repaired and resurfased (inaudible) . <br /> BETHEA: Yeah. But this was all hassled, out as I <br /> recall. Because the Council didn ' t want to accept what <br /> the mayor ' s recomm. . . <br /> GREENWELL: We didn ' t trust him. <br /> BETHEA: Well, that ' s right. It illustrates that <br /> they are not the same thing. That there is this diversion <br /> between administration and here, the County Council who <br /> are also driven by their own political concern, well_ I ' ve <br /> gotta. get' something for my district, etcetera. I didn' t <br /> think it worked very well. We did. . . <br /> GREENWELL: I got it distributed absolutely perfectly. <br /> BETHEA: No one (inaudible) . <br /> GREENWELL: Right back to where it came from. <br /> BETHEA: I happen to be there and there was a lot of <br /> politics going on about how (inaudible) in my opinion. But. <br /> I just generally agree. . .but I just simply don' t agree that. <br /> under this system the County Council is weak. I see them <br /> getting into areas that really, you 've got to leave some <br /> room for administration. So, we may have a strong-mayor <br /> system but I think we have a very strong Council too that <br /> has an awful lot of policy-making authority including when <br /> we vote at election . <br /> SMITH: If you ' ll allow me, I don' t believe I ever <br /> 172 <br />