I’m as in favor of good health and fitness as anyone, but I don’t think local government officials should go out of their way to promote one private business over the many others that also pay taxes in Durham. That’s exactly what Durham Mayor Bill Bell did yesterday:

Mayor Bill Bell didn’t throw a punch at his visit to the local L.A. Boxing gym Tuesday afternoon. Nor did he take one. He didn’t even doff his suit and put on a pair of shiny oversized shorts.

Nonetheless, the mayor may have struck an important blow for the cause of health and fitness by promoting L.A. Boxing’s Get Fit Durham challenge, which starts Monday and will run eight weeks.

As I read this story, the Get Fit Durham campaign has nothing to do with the City of Durham, but is the idea of the L.A. Boxing gym’s owner. On one hand I have to congratulate the business owner on a public-relations coup. He got the publicity he was after. But when this was pitched to the mayor as something on which he should stake out a position, someone in city government should have asked: “Why single out this one business when there are many other gyms struggling to make it in a down economy?”

It’s easy to imagine someone in city government hooking up a friend for free publicity. Maybe that didn’t happen here, but it’s certainly a legitimate question, something that a reporter perhaps should have asked in the pursuit of this story (hint, hint).

Bell didn’t just show up at the gym to offer support. He instructed city staff to promote the L.A. Boxing gym’s program:

Bell said he would ask Tom Bonfield, the city manager, to help spread the word about Get Fit Durham to the 2,400 or so people who work for municipal government.

Why should our city manager expend taxpayer-paid time to help a private business over other ones who provide similar services. Perhaps realizing the import of what he had just said, Bell added this, according to The Herald-Sun:

And he noted that the Durham Parks and Recreation department is a great resource for those who want to get moving and lose weight.

That’s what any city official should be supporting, rather than choosing one private business to promote over all others.