The Rule of Men, Not Law

The Council's acquiescence peaked when the members gave Burge, Lionetti and Calvin a round of applause after Macey lauded their "tremendous effort and sacrifice."

Meanwhile, critics of Lanier's looting of the Metro subsidy are conspicuous by their absence. King says he has not been consulted on the issue, even though he would be an obvious and primary source of alternative information. Greanias dashed off a memo to Council in the middle of last week's meeting, asking that he be given equal time to dispute Macey and Lanier's contentions. He was ignored.

The controller expected as much. After all, he figures that even Lanier realizes his flouting of the results of the 1988 referendum, while certainly convenient, lacks any basis in reason.

"If you had a contract with Bob Lanier," Greanias notes, "and the agreement was you were going to get 25 percent of the revenue from a joint venture and you walked in and said, 'Bob, what I really meant was a minimum of 25 percent,' do you think you'd get it?