We have a slight quibble with Mayor Eddie Sundquist’s State of the City address last week that is symptomatic of something we have noticed from Sundquist’s first year in office.

The mayor does himself no favors when he makes statements that can be easily refuted with a quick Google search.

For example, Sundquist said Monday during his State of the City address that for the first time in decades, the city has allocated funding to improve neighborhoods and provide direct funding to homeowner to make necessary repairs to their homes.

It’s not hard to see that statement doesn’t hold up to the slightest bit of scrutiny. The city has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years in Community Development Block Grant dollars on activities like housing demolitions, owner occupied housing repairs, rental property repairs, targeted code enforcement sweeps in eligible neighborhoods, Zombie Property work going back at least six years and partnering with non-profits like the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation on neighborhood programs. To say Sundquist’s administration is the first to take on these matters is a slap in the face to people who have done such work going all the way back to Carolyn Bloomquist, the former Ward 1 councilwoman who spearheaded the City Council’s Housing Committee.

In the same speech, Sundquist says the city was left with a mess related to ambulance service. But that’s not exactly true. While the situation was unresolved, the previous administration had put together a plan with four potential paths of action, with cost estimates, and begun the Requests for Proposals to gauge interest in providing ambulance service in Jamestown. At least two applications had been received before the end of former Mayor Sam Teresi’s term. So it’s not as if the ambulance mess was left on the incoming mayor’s desk with no legwork having been done to resolve it. Sundquist and his team may well have created a workable solution to the problem of city firefighters running an ambulance service — but it’s a bit of a stretch to say the new team was left with a mess.

Sundquist did, indeed, inherit a city with issues. But it’s hard to say he was left a mismanaged mess either. Sundquist seems to be trying hard to make his mark on Jamestown. He’s acting quickly, which takes some getting used to. And, surely, he wants to push further and faster than past administrations.

But the mayor should realize that his language sometimes burns bridges without his even realizing it. This is a city that needs as many bright minds pulling in the same direction as possible. Unfortunately, acting as if prior administrations were the Three Stooges serves as a point of division at a time when the city needs all hands on deck.