This is not to say that anyone should refrain from bringing up dirt about Copeland if such dirt exists, but I'm an equal opportunity mud slinger, and would like to see such thorough reporting on all the key players. This is not in any way to suggest Wenzel wrote a hit piece. She didn't. But I almost felt like I could see a little of where her interest lies in the way things were written, chosen, and researched.

I did get a little chuckle out of Rossbach's demand "Why don’t we choose someone none of us know?" Well, that's not really the way it works, is it? I mean, one generally attempts to find qualified, like-minded folks to work with, and generally one draws from the pool they are aware of. It seems Rossbach may have been both familiar with and like-minded with Fursman. Does that automatically disqualify Fursman?

Kathy Juenemann, the other minority council member, gave me one more chuckle:

“It’s hard for me to comprehend that you can decide who manages the city on behalf of all the residents and five elected officials,” Juenemann said, returning to the Copeland question. “There is no way three people can just decide what’s going on. It’s not OK.”

This is so interesting to me. That's what city councils do. They are a very small group of people whose majority votes decide who "manages the city on behalf of all the residents and five elected officials". Sure, it's a less palatable concept when you're no longer on the majority, but it's the same concept that was used when Rossbach and Juenemann were in the majority. Where was the protest back then?

If the firing/hiring process wasn't legal, it should be challenged, but that appears not to be the case. So I don't think their protests really seem to amount to much.

By the way, this is not an apologetic for Copeland. I don't know the guy. I don't know his track record. And both Juenemann and Rossbach seem like fine folks from the minimal Googling I did. This isn't about them in particular. It was the story and the way it was told that struck chords with me.

One last thing. I wonder if this happens more on a local political scale. Note that Mayor Longrie said "When I went to church, everybody wanted to shake my hand and say 'You’re doing the right thing.'" I don't often hear of public officials speaking about church like this. As a place where folks - and they must be archetypical or at least reasonable folks or the point is moot - share their opinions without those opinions being relegated to the standard few divisive topics. Rossbach, too, notes his involvement with his church in various places like his bios.

Nationally, churches and denominations often seem to move as chess pieces for battling ideologies. But this local level finds a couple of folks from seemingly different perspectives publicly valuing church without "invoking" church. I like that.

P.S. Though the article leads me to believe there's a conservative-liberal split on the council, it doesn't seem at my distance to be an extreme one. For instance, Rossbach sounds fairly conservative here. Maybe if someone knows more detail, they can comment below.