A Dictatorship Comes Closer to Perfection.

Tracy Truppman might not be the most autocratic Commissioner the Village has ever had.  (I hope she won't experience that comment as a challenge to step up her despotism.)  That distinction probably goes to Ed Burke.  But Tracy is working hard to cement her total control over everything in the Village.  The fact that she couldn't do it without enabling stooges, who are statutorily entitled to their own power, but cede it all to Tracy, is a curiosity.  And Tracy's job is harder, because we have a Charter Ed Burke didn't have, and it sets out specifically to prevent Tracy from doing what she's doing.

However Tracy managed it, she has secured a critical first line of protection.  She has put together a Commission that won't challenge her.  And she hired a manager who also won't challenge her.  It takes a little more than that to choke the life out of the Village and its government, and she's working on the rest.

In an indoctrination meeting for the new Commission, Tracy had the new Village attorney reassure the Commissioners that they are not required to respond to negative e-mails.  This is a curious statement from the new Village attorney, because it has no meaning of its own.  Of course Commissioners are not required to respond to criticism.  They're not required to respond to anything.  John Herrin doesn't have to tell them that.  And many of them don't, even without his telling them they don't have to.  They don't feel like it, they can't be bothered, they object to being criticized, or whatever, and they ignore their neighbors.  So why did John Herrin tell them they're excused?  Because it wasn't John Herrin telling them anything.  It was Tracy Truppman demonstrating that John Herrin is a puppet, too, and entering onto the record that it is officially permissible for Commissioners to ignore their neighbors.  Those are the people whose votes Commissioners occasionally want.

And then, there's this, now to be attached to Village communications pertaining to meetings:  "DECORUM - All comments must be addressed to the Commission as a body and not to individuals. Any person making impertinent or slanderous remarks, or who becomes boisterous while addressing the Commission, shall be barred from further audience before the Commission by the presiding officer, unless permission to continue or again address the commission is granted by the majority vote of the Commission members present. No clapping, applauding, heckling or verbal outbursts in support or in opposition to a speaker or his/her remarks shall be permitted. No signs or placards shall be allowed in the Commission Chambers. Please mute or turn off your cell phone or pager at the start of the meeting. Failure to do so may result in being barred from the meeting. Persons exiting the Chamber shall do so quietly."  Tracy has clearly moved to the next level of suppressing her neighbors, who are supposedly her constituents.  These are also the people whose voices she proposed should be heard.  At least that was her come-on, when she was running for office.  Cute phrase, too: "barred from further audience before the Commission."  It kind of speaks for itself.  Tracy always avoided commitments to "decorum" when they might have affected her prerogative with respect to her colleagues or her neighbors.  But she's much more enthusiastic about it when it serves the purpose of shutting down others' challenges of her.  Not even signs or placards are allowed in Tracy's domain.

It'll be interesting to see if any of Tracy's supposed colleagues (they're really just underlings, subordinates, and stooges) raises any issues about this muzzling of those who attend Commission meetings.  The beat(down) goes on.