"I Like Hearing Myself Talk. It Is One of My Greatest Pleasures." Oscar Wilde

Tonight, we sat through the overflow agenda from last week's Commission meeting.  Tracy Truppman had stopped the meeting after about 3 1/4 hours, because there were other items she wanted to discuss, and she felt they needed adequate time.  And she should have known how much time they would have needed, since almost all of them were her issues.  Tonight, she apologized for having had to schedule this extra meeting, and she blamed the necessity on the variance exploration from last week.  Yeah, that's where the fault lies.

I'll tell you now that tonight's overflow took three hours.  As someone in the audience pointed out, that was 6 1/4 hours to do one meeting.  And that's under the guidance of a Mayor who's showing us how to streamline meetings, to keep them short.

Here was the overflow agenda:

13.c  Discussion of the hiring of reserve police officers.  Johnson-Sardella.  This consumed some time, at the end of which, we learned that it is the Manager and the Police Chief who determine how many officers, including reserves, we need, and they have not in any way inhibited or failed to consider applicants.  We had 21 last year, and of those, we hired two.  We wanted quality, not just quantity.  So this item actually didn't need to come up at the meeting tonight.  It was already attended to.  Had the sponsor of the item discussed it with the Manager first, she would have discovered there was nothing to discuss.

13.d  Discussion on Police Department: Shift in policy to address overtime expenditures, proactive policing, increased enforcement, and visibility.  Truppman.   We learned in public comment at the beginning of the meeting that changes have already been made, under the appropriate direction of the Manager and Police Chief.  This was the Manager's purview (as was pointed out about several topics tonight), and it did not require formal discussion from the Commission.  As above, had the sponsor of this item discussed it first with the Manager, she would have learned that the discussion was not necessary.  There was a good deal of it, though.  Tick, tick, tick.

13.e  Setting Policy for Job Requirements for Chief of Police.  Truppman.  It was never clear what this item was supposed to be about, but what became very clear was that the Manager was already managing the hiring very well, and this discussion did not need to take place.  What it needed was for the sponsor to discuss it with the Manager, before placing it on the Commission agenda.

13.f    Discussion on Log Cabin fire suppression and detection/alarm system status and fire alarm system in the Village Hall.  Truppman.  This was probably the lengthiest discussion of the evening.  Tracy Truppman was having a devil of a time trying to decide what she wanted to accomplish.  Apart, of course, from her central aim, which was to use lots of engineering terms.  She kept saying she only wanted to "look forward," but she could not for a given whole minute refrain from raking one or another person over the coals.  If it wasn't the former Manager, then it was the building inspector, or the contractor, or the prior Commission.  But mainly, she was more than content to channel Oscar Wilde.  And at various points on the long, long course of this meeting, she sort of (sort of) apologized for "monopolizing" the meeting, as if she would have had it any other way.  She could see it, but she couldn't stop it/herself.  But back to the tragedy of the log cabin and the Village Hall, Tracy repeatedly pointed out how endangered occupants of these two buildings were, because no one inspected them properly!!  The Village resident sitting next to me leaned over and pointed out how much more expeditious it would have been if Tracy had simply had this discussion with the Manager a month or two ago, and the problem would have been resolved by now.  Thus saving building occupants from the danger under which Tracy saw them as laboring.  Sure, sure the problem would have been solved, but then Tracy would not have been able to hold court before her subjects, and been able to show how perspicacious she is.  And she very much made sure we all knew.  Most of her comments were made to the microphone, while Tracy gazed out among the audience.  This discussion wasn't about safety.  It was for show.  The Tracy Truppman Show, starring Tracy...Truppman.

13.g  Discussion on the amendments to the Charter corresponding with a special election timelines (sic).  Truppman.  Tracy surprised me here.  So many of her neighbors spoke against her attempted "power grab" that she actually retrenched on this one.  But she still wants someone to have more control over the hirings of "all Village employees."  She did, however, agree to hold meetings, and even perhaps seat a newest Charter Review Committee.  (If these descriptions give the impression that Tracy spoke as if she thought all decision-making was up to her, she did.)  And it took Tracy way too long even to relent on the effort to force this through.

13.h  Resolution [to have a special election to replace David Coviello].  With more experience, Tracy will learn that matters like this one don't require discussion.  They are obvious, and they are very quickly passed.

And that's where three hours went tonight.  Had Tracy been at all moderate, and had she had any real sense of proportion, this agenda would have been accomplished in an hour or less last week.  But I'm sure the Village Attorney isn't complaining that Tracy took two more hours than were remotely necessary.