Choosing a mayor and deputy is usually one of the less controversial parts of the local government calendar.
A little harmless whimsy involving knee breeches, a tricorn hat and some serious civic bling. Not this year though, not here in Stoke-on-Trent.
The city council have appointed former BNP Councilor Melanie Baddeley as Deputy Lord Mayor, if tradition is followed, she will go on to be the city's first citizen in 2020/21.
Councilor Baddeley represented the BNP on the city council between 2008 and 2011, she also stood as the far-right party's candidate in Stoke North at the 2010 general election.
Since then Councilor Baddeley has, she says, renounced her former views and after joining the City Independents group returned to elected office in 2015 in the Abbey Hulton and Townsend ward.
Councilor Baddeley was after defeating Labour nominee for the Deputy Mayor post Candi Chetwynd by 22 votes to 16.
She was nominated by City Independents leader Ann James, who praised her community work and later told the Sentinel that she was 'confident that she will do a fantastic job in representing the city'.
Stoke-on-Trent is a city with a serious and largely undeserved image problem, appointing an, admittedly repentant seeming, former member of the BNP as its first citizen a year from now will not help matters.
A media that seldom strays far from London and the Home Counties uses Stoke as shorthand for urban decay. To them our city, which most of their number haven't visited is a decrepit theme park where their favorite folk devils roam free.
The way they have gone about doing so, by becoming property developers building apartments for 'young professionals', may be open to question; but the council have made a determined effort to change the city's image.
That is what makes the decision to endorse the appointment of Councilor Baddeley so frustrating.
The motives behind it are both clear and disappointing, the ruling Tory/City Independents coalition rejected the more suitable Labour candidate to score points against the opposition.
A neat little move when the leadership are in a tight place over Solarplicity failing to deliver. New leader Abi Brown is fast finding out that the Tories second term in coalition might be a lot tougher than the first.
Short term gain has been allowed to trump long term cost; an outcome that always has unpleasant consequences. In this instance these are likely to be both social and economic ones.
A key feature of the council's regeneration strategy since 2015 has been attracting investment to the city based on building 'executive' housing from to attract potential investors. These are exactly the people likely to be put off by the thought of living in a town that has made someone even loosely associated with the BNP one of its most senior political figures.
This could be damaging, property developing is a gamble at the best of times. In a crowded field where a lot of post-industrial towns are chasing after the same cohort of 'professionals ' it takes only a single card to turn a playable hand into a heap of dust.
Socially appointing Councilor Baddeley as Deputy Mayor is even more problematic, Stoke has an unfortunate recent history of far-right involvement in its politics. A little over a decade ago there were six BNP members sitting on the council, in 2016 the city voted overwhelmingly for Brexit.
Neither of these outcomes are surprising in a city that struggles with high levels of deprivation. People with nothing to lose are the target audience for extremists, not least because they are open to adopting any scapegoat offered to them.
Easy answers offered up by political groups with extremist agendas create more problems than they solve. Embracing them traps cities like Stoke in a miserable stasis of managed decline. A vicious circle the ruling City Independents, Labour and anyone with the city's best interests at heart is trying to break.
Councilor Baddeley claims to have changed her political views, if we accept that as being the case, then she must also accept the reality of her situation. By accepting the Deputy Mayor's chain, she will be doing serious damage to the people she pledged her oath to serve.
If she does then it will also be clear that she must think seriously about her position; and having done so resign.
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