Mayor of Bogota
In 1995 Lonegan was elected Mayor of Bogota, defeating incumbent Democrat Leonard Nicolosi. He was reelected in 1999 and 2003 by double-digit margins.
The 2003 mayoral election in Bogota was chronicled in the documentary Anytown, USA.
As Mayor, he cut municipal spending, merged several municipal departments and privatized some services. Lonegan ordered the municipality to hire civilian emergency dispatchers at lower pay than uniformed officers, angering the local Police union; successfully fought the implementation of LOSAP (Length of Service Award Program), which extended pension payments to volunteer fire and rescue personnel; and required that local union contracts exceeding inflation be put to voters for approval. While he was in office Republicans, long in the minority in Democratic-leaning Bogota, controlled the municipal council for 11 straight elections.
Lonegan did not seek reelection in 2007.
Read more about this topic: Steve Lonegan
Famous quotes containing the word mayor:
“The mayor and Montaigne have always been two, with a very clear separation. For all of being a lawyer or a financier, we must not ignore the knavery there is in such callings. An honest man is not accountable for the vice or stupidity of his trade, and should not therefore refuse to practice it.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)