John Herrin and I Get Our Comeuppance. Subjectivity Is a Beautiful Thing.

I suppose last night's Commission meeting had to be endless.  There was, in fact, a good deal of material on the agenda.  And when the person running the meeting can't focus on the agenda items, but is constantly aiming to make the meeting about herself, it just has to take a long time.  It took just over the allotted four hours, and we finished about 3/4 of the material.  Well, when I say finished... Two of the three variances got incomplete attention, and both were carried over to the next meeting for completion.  The third variance was never heard at all.  And neither were some of the meaty discussion issues.

The first long segment was Public Comment.  It seems the natives are not at all happy.  Well, some of them are not happy.  Other recruits, who are never seen at meetings, appeared last night seemingly for the purpose of reporting how pleased they are with the current Commission, how unfair and out of line are the people who aren't pleased, and how the most important thing in life is mindless harmony.  Om.  Usually, Big Mama simply allows her detractors to speak their peaces, then she ignores whatever they said.  This time, Big Mama had a different strategy.  Not only did she scare up a few of her friends to criticize her critics, but Big Mama herself became more of an activist.  She interrupted generously, and worked actively to shut people down.  She beat Dan Schneiger out of so much of his allotted three minutes that he was unable to finish his timed comment in the time given.  So Big Mama tried to have him removed from the meeting when he kept going.  Luckily for Dan, and for democracy, the police ignored Big Mama's orders to remove him, have him killed, or whatever she wanted.  Big Mama just don't brook no sass from no commoners, and Dan, and a number of us, clearly overstepped.  Big Mama also had her Gray/Robinson attorney to pseudolegalize the suppression of Village residents.  Attorney Julie Mandell also wasted a good deal of time explaining why Village residents are not allowed not only to say "you, Tracy, shouldn't..." etc, but are not even allowed to say "Tracy shouldn't..."  I forget the phrase about not taking someone's name something-or-other, or even uttering it.  But it clearly applies to our Commission, at least in Tracy's opinion.

The second long segment was the battle of the attorney applicants.  It was John Herrin and his (male) business partner against Julie Mandell and two of her (female) business partners.  Each applicant for the job of VBP attorney made its case for why it's the best choice.  And each presentation was about equal.  There were only two differences (three, if you think gender is an important variable).  One was that one applicant included John Herrin.  The other was that although the new Gray/Robinson, the one that doesn't include John Herrin, reassured us that they have 15 offices, of which 14 are in Florida, so we are guaranteed abundant "local" representation, they again had to get the attorney for the evening to fly in from Tampa.  If they have so much Florida staffing, it's hard to imagine why they don't just have people in Miami.  They had two other attorneys on hand and active last night, and they were based in Miami.  So why have to bring in Julie Mandell from Tampa?  It was never addressed or explained.  Anyway, in making his presentation, John Herrin mentioned that if you google him, you'll find some negative publicity.  One of his detractors is a former Councilwoman from Doral (I think), and John offended her by telling her that one of her proposed schemes was illegal.  Apparently, she went on a campaign to punish John for disagreeing with her.  What John seems to have forgotten is that this is not the last time this has happened to him.  He offended Big Mama in exactly the same way, and Big Mama don't forget stuff like that.  So, it didn't really matter what John said, or what his business partner said, or what the the three current Gray/Robinson applicants said.  Tracy, and her pet, Betsy, and, if I remember correctly, Will Tudor, were simply going to judge that Gray/Robinson was the best choice.  Which is what they did.  John made the mistake of disagreeing with Big Mama about something, and he paid the price.

At some point, we made our way to two of the three variances.  The first one was left over from two months ago, because the Commission botched the presentation by illegally changing the original meeting date.  Most of the presentation was made on March 19, it was made again last night, and the Commission learned that when there's ambiguity, and two seemingly legitimate sides to an issue, it's hard to make a decision, and take responsibility for that decision.  Unfortunately, none of the current Commissioners, except Dan Samaria, has ever before sat through Commission meetings, so they don't know about things like making decisions and taking responsibility.  They couldn't do it last night, either, and they agreed to carry this matter over to next month.  They have no apparent awareness of how they're being unfair and jerking people around.  They're just trying to avoid the moment of the stopping of the buck.

The next variance request was mine.  Now, of course I know at the outset that this Commission is not going to approve any request I make.  I'm the one making it, like John Herrin wants something.  You do not challenge Tracy "Big Mama" Truppman, then have her do something in your favor.  It just doesn't work that way.  So, I made my case, and Big Mama, and her pet, Betsy, decided that it just didn't add up for them.  Will Tudor and Dan Samaria thought my request was worthy enough, and they could vote in my favor.  But Big Mama and Betsy just thought I hadn't offered compelling enough proof of need for this variance.  And that's what it comes down to.  It's like a jury.  They can choose to believe one side, or they can feel the other side was more believable.  Of course, with a jury, the idea is that they're supposed to be impartial.  It don't work that way with the current BP Commission.

But, there was an interesting problem for the resolution of my variance application last night.  It seems Jenny Johnson-Sardella was either not feeling well, or there was some other issue.  Because she wasn't there.  So the vote was 2-2.  And that means this will get presented and voted again next month, when someone can break the tie.  What are my chances, with both of Big Mama's girls, instead of just one of them?  Um, this is not a bet I would take.  But, Jenny has on rare occasion very recently shown something that looked faintly like very subtle independence from Big Mama.  So, I suppose there are actual odds.  They're not in my favor, but they might exist.

This is all very personal to Tracy "Big Mama" Truppman.  She takes it all very personally.  Her tenure on the BP Commission is about her, and it has essentially nothing to do with BP.  She likes to be complimented by her sycophants, and she punishes and acts out vendettas against anyone who confronts her in any way.  She thinks she knows everything, better than anyone else, and she likes personal control of everything.  That's how she rolls, and it's who she is.  Nothing is about anything, except it's all about her.  And that's why John Herrin is out, and I'm not winning my case, and uncomfortable decisions about other matters don't get made.