I listened again. Commissioner Dr Bryan Cooper has "researched" the matter, and he has learned that the idea of moving the BP election to the general election was actually my idea. He has further reasoned, intuited, or otherwise discovered that I have "brought forward" this idea through Commissioner Ross, whom he characterizes as my "friend."
This train of events and reasonings is beyond tricky. It is closer to death-defying. I must say, I have no idea what activity Commissioner Dr Cooper means when he says he "researched" something. Whatever it is, it has unfortunately led him in a very wrong direction. He might also have some attentional or memory problems. I moved to BP in the summer of 2005. I voted in my first BP election in December of that year. The next general election was the next November. It was some time in that time frame that I came upon the idea that there was something very inefficient going on, and I began to suggest to the Commission that there might be sense in unifying the elections. It would be cheaper, and the turnout would be better. I have made that suggestion to three different Commissions. I began to suggest it not only before Commissioner Ross became a Commissioner, but even before I met her. I never communicated this idea, or any idea, to one or another Commissioner, to the exclusion of the others. I have never communicated any idea for Commission action to Commissioner Ross unless I also communicated it to all the other Commissioners, including Commissioner Dr Cooper. If Commissioner Dr Cooper doesn't read e-mail I send him, I count that as his problem, not mine.
So Commissioner Dr Cooper is grossly wrong to imagine that I have ever promoted any idea through one Commissioner or another. His researches have also somehow failed to inform him that this idea has been mentioned in the Village for many years, long before I moved here. He says the idea was mine, but it simply was not. There isn't much else to say to him about that. He either made a mistake, was careless, or has made up a story. Only he knows which explanation is correct.
What is most curious about his comment is the idea he now exposes, that a non-Commissioner resident of BP, like me, could bring forward an agenda by using a Commissioner. He is describing a situation in which a non-Commissioner resident has great power over Commissioners, and can direct them to do what he wants. It would seem that he treats them like puppets, and they do his bidding. Commissioner Dr Cooper is making a pretty clear statement about Commissioners who are so weak, mindless, and susceptible. Presumably, he is also saying something about such a resident, who we should imagine must be rather dramatically taken with himself and his power, and is essentially predatory in the way he uses other people, including elected officials.
I guess this is what Commissioner Dr Cooper is saying, and what he believes. I can disagree with him about me personally, and he has no way of knowing how independent-minded Commissioner Ross is, and how often she has disagreed with me or declined suggestions of mine, but Commissioner Dr Cooper may know something I don't know. He may be referring to something entirely different. He is wrong to think I have either the inclination or the power to control Commissioners, but I am not in a position to say that no one has such an inclination, or that there are no Commissioners who can be so manipulated. If Commissioner Dr Cooper is trying to tell us something when he makes these assertions, he will have to be a bit more explicit, and more detailed.
No comments:
Post a Comment