The Commission meeting for October 1, 2013, was one of the worst ever. The agenda was tiny, and it still took four hours. Noah Jacobs was as rude, dismissive, and childish as he has ever been, although there were no full-blown tantrums today, and he, Bryan Cooper, and Barbara Watts kept themselves in mindless lock step. Many of the votes, about a variety of topics, were Ross and Anderson one way, then Jacobs and Cooper the other way, with Jacobs then looking over to Watts, who hadn't voted, asking for her vote in concert with him and Cooper. This happened repeatedly.
Here's a simple issue: Ross introduced a resolution that the Village have and publicize a stance against bullying in children. It's a relatively hot topic these days, there's lots of momentum to confront it, and Ross put together a whole "Whereas" and "Therefore" synthesis, complete with backup and references. Hard not to vote for that, right? Boilerplate, right? Tell that to Cooper, who is still propping up some alleged non-event regarding a disgruntled employee from 3 1/2 years ago. Cooper insisted on including language confronting bullying against employees, too. Fortunately for him, he has his brain dead stooges to back him up, so he and Jacobs and Watts refused to pass Ross' Resolution. Fine, said Ross, you take the Resolution, rework all the language to make it the way you want it, and bring it back next time. "Work?!," Cooper seemed to reply. Uh, I don't think so. But Ross left it to him. So we'll probably never hear about it again. And I didn't keep track, but this foolish discussion consumed a surprising amount of time.
A couple have a house that is set unusually far back on an odd-shaped lot. They wanted a picket fence in front of the house, to contain their dogs. Well, you just say picket fence to Bryan Cooper, and he starts making a certain kind of happy mess in his pants. He was all over this one. Yes, he could see why these lovely people, with the disadvantaged property layout, and the charming boxer dogs, simply must have their picket fence. The problem was, no one else could see why that was necessary. And others were somehow put off by the fact that these delightful neighbors had installed this fence without a permit, then moved it without a permit, even though they did lots of other work and seemed fully aware of the requirement for permits. They never explained the lapse. So they didn't get their variance, and Bryan got really quiet.
Annexation. Or apparently not. A particularly ugly display, with Jacobs being at his rude, tyrannical, childish best. It eventually became clear that the three musketeers, or the three stooges, or whatever they are, were pleased to see that they were adequately aligned, and that we would not pursue annexation. It appears Steve Bernard is back on his game, and he was able to straighten them all out. Each one, mainly Watts, parroted whatever talking points Steve instructed, and they managed to act in idiotic concert to kill the deal. Jacobs almost slipped up, saying he wouldn't vote to proceed unless there was a cap on spending. So Ross amended her motion, the happy group delivered the cap to Jacobs, and he remembered his mission and voted against pursuing annexation anyway. I'm guessing the guy doesn't have many friends.
It isn't easy for goofballs like Jacobs and Cooper to say they agree that the Village is in deep fiscal trouble, then vote against every mechanism to try to save it. But that's what they do. And Watts is dutifully along for the ride. Cooper gives us 10 years to live. But still, he thinks he's angling to get us married off to the Shores family.
The search for a new manager. Roxy Ross got really pushy and decided they should whittle down the list tonight, make an imminent date for interviews, and choose a manager on the day of the interviews. No, no, no, Jacobs countered. We may need to space things out. (Hmm, what for?) Yeah, said Watts, maybe Commissioners would like to talk to others before they make up their minds. (Oh, that's what for.) So our brave and wise majority decided it would prepare a short list by October 17, interview on November 6, and present its choice, or someone's choice, on November 14. And all of this occurred in the presence of two visitors: manager candidates. I guess we'll know tomorrow if they withdraw their applications.
It's really kind of unimaginable that we allowed ourselves to have this kind of nonsense comprising the majority of our Commission. It's sort of like the day enough people in Minnesota all got mad on the same day and elected Jesse Ventura governor. It was a mistake they didn't repeat when he ran for re-election. Cooper keeps talking about our upcoming elections, and Jacobs mentioned it, too. Both of their terms are up. I hope we don't make the same stupid mistake we did when we elected them. But the people who vote don't come to meetings, so they have no idea what on earth they did.
If you want to know what happened about the mural, it's in the immediately preceding post.
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