I Wonder if That Was a Mutiny.

We had a very strange special Commission gathering tonight.  It had something to do with our attorney.  Here's how this came about.

Our attorney, John Herrin, reportedly told our manager, Krishan Manners, that he, John Herrin, would be leaving his firm soon.  This was maybe in the past two weeks.  But no one was supposed to say anything about it, and John wanted to wait until he told his firm that he was leaving to join another firm.  Apparently, that happened some time late last week, because on Friday, we received a letter from John's firm saying John was no longer with them, and we could choose to stay with the firm, and be represented by someone other than John, be represented by John at his new firm, or find another attorney altogether.  It was Krishan Manners who received this letter.  On Sunday (two days ago), tonight's special meeting was scheduled, and the purpose was to talk about our attorney situation, supposing that we have one.  It was never made clear by anyone why this special meeting had to be so precipitously soon (tonight).  And not only was a meeting called to talk about our (imagined?) attorney situation, but three resumes of firms were attached as backup, and they were the same resumes as the finalists from last year, when we hired John and his firm.  So it was made to appear that we were finding a new attorney.  But since our attorney didn't resign from representing us, and the firm of which he was a part when we hired him/them was still willing to provide regular legal counsel, we weren't without an attorney.  So why were we looking for one?  To recapitulate, why was it being made to look like we didn't have an attorney, and what was the rush to choose a new one?  All of us who delivered public comments posed those questions.  And the other thing we all addressed was the peculiar set-up involving preconclusions about any of this, a compilation of resumes, with no introductory discussion, and, as Mac Kennedy astutely observed, the fact that five Commissioners who supposedly had next to no information were there, and none of them looked at all perplexed.  It might have been Roxy Ross who uttered the "Sunshine" reference.

For Chuck Ross and me, there was one other concern.  Roxy Ross recalled that the vote to hire John Herrin and his firm had been 4-1 of the then Commission.  The one who didn't choose John was Tracy Truppman.  It has also been observed that on two known occasions, John has disagreed with Tracy about one thing or another.  One of those failures to heel was followed by Tracy's giving John a tongue lashing outside.  Tracy Truppman does not brook people disagreeing with her.  There's typically some form of hell to pay for an act like that.  So the additional question was whether Tracy was gunning for John, whom she had not chosen at the outset, and who had the nerve to disagree with her about something, in the same way, but for different reasons, that she was gunning for Sharon Ragoonan, whom she assassinated as a Village employee.  Tracy does that.  As best we can tell, there's a list of them now.

But the bottom line was that we felt that the whole scheme of tonight's meeting was ill-conceived, in part because no one knew or understood much of anything (which wouldn't matter to Tracy, if all she wants is to punish/replace John for disagreeing with her), and one of the reasons no one knew anything is that no one asked.  For example, as became clear as this meeting slogged on, no one knew about John's new firm, or what his old firm was prepared to do for us, and John had either not been told about this meeting, or had been told about it, and been told he was not welcome to attend.

It was an interesting, if painful, 40 minutes.  Almost all of the Commission, even including Betsy Wise and Jenny Johnson-Sardella, actually came to understand the disadvantage at which they had been placed.  And as much as Tracy tried unwaveringly to steer everyone's comments to some conclusion, which Tracy tried to put in their mouths, that we should find a new firm (any firm in the world that, let's say, doesn't include John Herrin), they actually resisted.  The leader in this resistance was Will Tudor.  Jenny Johnson-Sardella repeatedly "concurred" (her all time favorite word) with Will.  And Betsy Wise resisted the herding Tracy was trying to do, too.  So did Dan Samaria.

What the Commission finally decided was that it didn't have enough information, and that they should slow this process down.  Which is of course precisely what all of us tried to tell them.  Jenny Johnson-Sardella even mentioned having recognized the wisdom of some comment Barbara Kuhl made.  Obviously, these Commissioners are not allowed to say they were persuaded by anything Roxy Ross said or I said, and that's OK.  As long as they get it, it's not important whom they recognize for having helped them see straight.  Roxy had other insights and caveats, too, but Tracy refused to let her speak.  Ah, good old Tracy.  Raging and limited to the end.

Yes, it was a gross waste of 40 minutes, but it was interesting to watch what looked like actual independence and something like clear thinking.  It could be just a one off situation.  We may be back to Village government brain death very soon.  Or maybe not.  Can Tracy punish all four of them, without the cooperation of at least two of them?  It depends how she does it, or what she's got on them.