Okay, I have to admit it — I’ve always liked Phyllis Green.
Back when Phyllis was working so hard to fix up Altro Park, I thought she was a natural leader.
Then when everything was done, Mayor Sullivan slighted her by not naming a room after her in the new youth department building.
Phyllis donated hours of her time to move earth and rattle change from people’s pockets.
In the end, however, the city named the rooms after the pockets, not the workers.
This city names everything. Just not after Phyllis.
And it’s a shame. A look at her history shows you her hard work and the dedication that this woman holds.
She served 10 years on the Common Council, deciding to get out in 1997 to spend time with her family.
But she quit retirement quickly. A few short weeks after announcing that wouldn’t run for her long-held Council seat, Phyllis decided to run for county legislator — a seat she never obtained.
Phyllis got herself a nice volunteer position on the city’s Youth Board, all with the plan of refurbishing Altro Park, which as I’ve already mentioned, went astonishingly well.
Then she decided there was going to be too much office in the aforementioned youth department building, so she quit the Youth Board.
“The moment (Paul Foster) moves in, I’m resigning,” she said back in October 2000.
Give ’em hell, Phyllis.
Then Phyllis got back on the Common Council in 2001, beating Democratic golden child Sean Smith and tossing city politics into a tizzy.
And she promptly went on vacation, extending the 2nd Ward all the way down to Florida, where she spent nearly a month.
Of course, she was supposed to be there for two, but she quit her vacation early.
“I really honest and truly think that I can do more in 10 months than some people do in 12,” Phyllis told me in January, adding that she wouldn’t give up a dime of her $6,500 salary.
So to sum up, she quit the Council, quit the youth board, and quit on her constituents to go to Florida.
And in February, she told my editors that she’d never talk to me again, but she quit not talking to me, too.
Now she wants you to quit your paper because — heaven forbid — we’ve been printing the news.
“When we don’t comment, they say we’re not doing our job,” she said last Wednesday in calling for a boycott of your local daily. “They’re harming the city.”
We’re harming the city, mind you, by printing the truth about what your city leaders say and do (think Kibler) and don’t say or do (think Merritt).
She had the audacity to say to me, “Sometimes I think the newspaper just wants to sell newspapers.”
Say it ain’t so, Phyllis.
Sure, this is a business. People have to buy the paper in order for me to get a paycheck at the end of the week. I can’t go to Florida for a month and still get paid, but maybe I’m just envious — or dare I say green.
Anyway, to get back to my original point, I want to name something after Phyllis.
How about 5 o’clock? Also known as quitting time.