So we got to see our new Commission in action tonight. It's a little hard to describe. Perhaps the beginning would be a good place to begin. The new Commission met one of its first and most important goals: it unceremoniously, in mindless bloc, dumped the Mayor. It then replaced her with the new Commissioner who has no experience with the Village and its functioning, had already said he would now, having become a Commissioner, have to find out about the issues, and was the low vote-getter in last week's election.
It then went on to consider the business of the meeting. An important issue was the new fence Ordinance. The mindless bloc, having heard from resident after resident that they wanted the Ordinance passed tonight, deferred the matter for a couple more months. This bloc is the people who complained so much that the Commission doesn't listen to the residents. And they deferred it allegedly to receive more resident input, which was exactly the thing they ignored tonight. They wanted, for example, a workshop. What they really had to want is another workshop, since we've already had one. But they had no way of knowing that, since none of the bloc attended it. Cooper, when he was outed for not having attended the workshop, couldn't bring himself to acknowledge the fact. It's been a while since I've seen anyone look that foolish. Neither he nor his new colleagues has ever attended any meeting where the fence Ordinance has been discussed and reworked. The fact is, it wasn't clear what they wanted, except somehow to run and hide from the fence Ordinance. They never said what their real problem was. Cooper used the word "smokescreen," which is probably right. The interesting question is, what's behind the screen of smoke?
This new Commission also passed a Consent Agenda, which included six sets of minutes from prior meetings. Cooper always joined Bernard in making the old Commission waste lots of time going over the minutes, insisting on change and addition after change and addition. This time, they simply passed all the minutes with no scrutiny at all. They gave no reason for their grossly inconsistent approach to what they usually like to portray as a huge problem that needs abundant correction. And the funny thing is, Bernard and Cooper used to complain that they, and the residents, were being steamrolled in suppression of accuracy of the minutes, because they got outvoted by the brute majority. Now, they had the majority, in Cooper, Watts, and Jacobs, the latter two being new Commissioners who ran on Bernard- and Cooper-inspired campaigns of openness, honesty, transparency, and accountability. This was it. The big opportunity to demand and enforce complete and accurate minutes. It appears none of them really cared one bit about the minutes, or openness, honesty, transparency, or accountability. These theories were merely excuses to whine and accuse.
One thing the new Commission did is demonstrate repeatedly that the new Commissioners don't know or understand the issues, and stumbled around trying to figure out what they were doing. They seemed never to figure it out. Watts made a motion that she then wanted to vote against, which she isn't allowed to do, so she wound up being the only person to vote for it. Jacobs gave a clear and careful explanation, in support of Cooper, as to why it was wrong for elected officials to carry "police-style badges," then voted in favor of keeping the tradition. (It might have occurred to him that he was going to get one, too, and his would be that super nifty one that said "Mayor.") Cooper was taken to task by a resident over texting while the resident was speaking, but he first ignored the resident's repeated complaint of disrespect, then claimed to be doing "research." (He was texting with Bernard, who stayed to monitor, if not perhaps supervise, the proceedings.) In any event, it appears our new Mayor didn't think it was his job to ask Cooper to put his toys away, or maybe he didn't disagree that residents should be treated so disrespectfully. And again, you really had to be there, to watch Cooper completely ignore a resident who was pleading with him to show some courtesy and pay attention. This scene ran a close second to Cooper's being confronted for not having come to the workshop just like the one he now claims he wants, and simply staring dumbly at the resident who was confronting him. These are what Jon Stewart calls "Moments of Zen."
Fortunately, the new Commission had Ross, who was remarkably gracious, and the Village attorney to tell them what to do, since they very clearly had no idea. Not only do they not have any grasp of the issues, but they also have no understanding of the rules for meetings.
No doubt they will improve some. The Manager has offered to help them, and so has the Village attorney. It appears Roxy Ross will fill many gaping holes in the capacity of her new colleagues.
In reality, the meeting was pretty pathetic. At the end, Bernard commented about how courageous it was that the Commission heard such strong and impassioned urgings for action from so many residents in attendance, but it was able to ignore all of them and defer the fence issue to February. Bernard, Cooper, and the new Commissioners are the people who made such a fuss, and so much campaign hay, over the idea that the residents were to be heard, respected, and obeyed. Bernard used to complain so bitterly that the majority of the Commission turned a deaf ear to residents. Tonight, he praised his puppets for doing exactly that. It did look a little less like puppetry tonight. It looked more like someone operating a radio controlled vehicle, Bernard sitting there, texting away, while his proteges lurched first one way, then another. Well, maybe next time. Maybe next time the residents' wishes can be taken remotely into account. Maybe next time, the residents won't have to be insulted by Cooper's incessant texting, or playing Tetris, or whatever he was doing, while they're speaking to him. Yeah, maybe next time.
Correction: One of my correspondents says Cooper was not playing Tetris. She said she could tell by his expression, and how entranced he was by his cell phone game, that he was playing Sim City. My mistake. Sorry.
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