Only one was ready to lead Hayden

Taking a page from North Idaho College's Inept Leadership Blueprint, the Hayden City Council did its best Tuesday night to trump NIC's unfolding failure.

And damn near succeeded.

Hayden City Council has been drifting aimlessly since Mayor Steve Griffitts resigned a month ago. Doing slow-motion donuts in the doldrums, the city's 15,000 citizens now see, was actually progress compared to what erupted Tuesday.

The City Council made a spectacle of itself. Correction: Council members Matt Roetter and Sandra White made spectacles of themselves.

The way he cross-examined Roger Saterfiel, the only person qualified and vested to run the city, you'd think Roetter was trying to waylay a Supreme Court nominee.

Sorry, Matt. By stating last month that you didn't want the mayor's job and then acting every bit like someone who would slip a stiletto in the gizzard of a worthy volunteer, you've embarrassed yourself and the community you're allegedly serving.

No better was Sandra White, who not only is mere weeks into her Council service, but in her first elected service anywhere. For some reason no rational person can see, White deems herself instant mayoral material. That self-assessment is a cruel cross between hilarious and pathetic.

When it comes to rational thought and behavior, the title goes to newcomer Ed DePriest. But DePriest, who supported Saterfiel for all the right reasons, was crushed under the weight of Roetter's and White's egos.

The city of Hayden suffered a huge setback when White and Roetter bumbled backward with no mayor and no clear plan forward.

Saterfiel would have offered consistency and avoided catastrophe in filling out the remainder of Griffitts' term.

He's as down-to-Earth as any council member this side of Woody McEvers. Roger isn’t flashy. The former director of the county’s Solid Waste Department is only half-joking when he says some of his most insightful observations came from the back of a garbage truck.

He’s plainspoken and not easily distracted from the job at hand. Eight years as Council president also showed him how City Council business should be conducted, which is a much more important and difficult task than most people realize.

Well, now we're realizing it. And there's good reason to look at NIC and now the city of Hayden and wonder if there isn't a leadership contagion running amok in Kootenai County.