Since history is always instructive, and since most people do not know the history of the last 10 minutes of the Baltimore City Council, today we will let everyone know the deeply held thoughts of the late Wally Orlinsky.

He was president of the council for a couple of terms before running into legal problems, and he had marvelous plans for the office, which he mentioned on at least one particularly gloomy morning.

“President of the City Council?” he asked. “Abolish the job.”

“You’d abolish your own job?” a listener asked.

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“Get rid of it,” Orlinsky thundered. “What’s it good for? In this city, it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

This was the voice of experience talking. Orlinsky, maybe the brightest guy in city government, wanted some power and chafed with frustration when he never got any. In Baltimore, the only one at City Hall with real power is the mayor. In Orlinsky’s years, this happened to be someone named William Donald Schaefer.

They spent their time in the usual manner: Schaefer conducted the city’s first modern renaissance, while Orlinsky built castles in the air.

This comes to mind today because of the thing happening in our midst, occasionally noticed by voters. There’s a municipal election going on, and it includes three serious candidates for council president: the incumbent, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who got the job when Sheila Dixon left it to become mayor; Councilman Kenneth Harris; and Michael Sarbanes, executive director of the Citizens Planning and Housing Association and, not to be minimized, son of retired U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes and brother of U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes.

They’re out there campaigning as if the job had real meaning, and real power.

Such as Rawlings-Blake, who was found Monday evening at the Whole Foods Store just off Falls Road by the Kelly Avenue Bridge, handing out campaign literature and asking for votes. Some people reacted politely, while others avoided eye contact.

The candidate took it all in stride. As the daughter of the late Del. Howard “Pete” Rawlings, she has been around political campaigns for much of her life.

“Did your father want you to get into politics?” she was asked.

“If he didn’t,” she said, laughing out loud, “he had a screwed-up way of raising me.”

“But where’s the power in this job?” she was asked. Orlinsky’s assessment was related to her.

“I’m a student of power,” she said. “I’m the daughter of a person who knew how to use it to achieve. The end game is to get the best city possible.”

“But what did your father tell you about power?”

“That it’s not for yourself,” she said.

Now this is a very good answer. It’s concise, it’s dramatic and it’s properly self-effacing.

But it gets us no closer to the dilemma: In Baltimore, the mayor has the power. The City Council president presides over the council, which, at its best, has the power to listen to constituents with real problems and make telephone calls to the proper city departments.

Campaigning with Rawlings-Blake on Monday was Rochelle “Rikki” Spector, who has served 31 years on the council and has some perspective on these things. She mentioned a name: Clarence “Du” Burns.

“The real Rhodes scholar,” she said.

The reference was clear. Burns was the mayor of Baltimore until Kurt Schmoke took the office away from him. Schmoke ran on the promise of a great resume. He had an Ivy League education. He’d been a Rhodes scholar. All Du Burns had was several terms in the City Council and three years as council president. Then Schaefer became governor, and Burns was mayor for a year.

“He knew what to do as mayor,” Spector said, “because he’d been council president. Because he’d been in the council. He was the real Rhodes Scholar, but certain people didn’t want him to have the job because he’d had to work his way up as a towel attendant at Dunbar High School. So he lost the job, and the city lost the right man.”

So we’re left today with a few thoughts on the office of council president:

Wally Orlinsky’s: The job’s nothing more than a title.

Rikki Spector’s: The job’s the best training ground to become mayor.

And this thought: Orlinsky’s frustration grew because it looked as if Schaefer was never going to give up the job of mayor (he kept it for 15 years). The current occupant, Sheila Dixon, says she has no desire to look higher. So the council presidency is a potential training ground for mayor — if you can wait that long.

Please send news tips to Michael Olesker at olesker@baltimoreexaminer.com