"Why's Everybody Always Pickin' on Me?"

For me, it started with Krishan Manners.  I had heard that the WiFi in the log cabin and recreation center has been disabled by the Village.  So I asked Krishan about this.  He explained that it was a "security" measure.  It seems, according to Krishan, that some people have been going around to various municipalities, somehow signing onto WiFi networks, and introducing viruses, and making other mischief.  No, it hasn't allegedly happened here, but our Village administration has had to take steps.  I suggested that Krishan tell me the now secured password (the other password for guests was secure, too), and I'll sign myself in, and I'll never tell anyone the password.  No, Krishan said, this wouldn't be secure enough, either.  "They" could get in through my phone.  I'm not a techie, but I asked my friend, Chuck Ross, about it, and it didn't make sense to him, either.  He said there could be a private network, to which none of us (except everyone who works for the Village) would have access, and a more open guest network, to which people would still need passwords.  And this would be good enough.  Krishan told me I was "out of line" to complain, and to interpret this as just another in the lengthening line of measures the Village and its Commission have been taking to shut down and shut out non-Commissioner residents.  I suggested that Krishan and attorney Rebecca Rodriguez, who was listening intently, were both accomplices, and stooges of Tracy "Big Mama" Truppman.  Krishan disagreed.  He also chastised me, saying he had always been respectful of me.  I told him that in return, I was the last person he finally found a way to alienate.  I stuck by him as long as I could.

Then, the meeting started.  Dan Samaria wanted to delete the second reading of the budget Ordinance, because important information was missing.  Jenny Johnson-Sardella said it would be a bad idea to delay, because we could simply continue the discussion once the information was available, and Big Mama agreed.  It was later in the meeting that Jenny wanted to delay discussion of something else, because we didn't have the full information about it.  Under the new regime, where non-Commissioner Village residents are boxed out as much as possible, it was not possible to ask Jenny when a discussion should happen, regardless of missing information, and when it should be delayed, because of missing information.

Ah, public comment.  Suffice it to say that everyone who commented was disgusted in one way or another.  I have no idea why Big Mama takes notes of the comments, since she ignores them, and the unhappy neighbors who make them, anyway.  Maybe it's her way of keeping herself awake.  If that's what it is, it would be better if she didn't take notes.

Big Mama and her Will Tudor are into lofty ambitions.  They want to address areas of perceived vulnerability, like "risk management," and Will's later goal, enthusiastically shared by Big Mama, to address the imperfections and "voids," as Big Mama called them, in our Charter.  After over 2 1/2 years, they have still failed to finish a driveway and swale Ordinance, or actually accomplish anything else, but they're looking at a much bigger picture than that.

Dan Samaria got his best opportunity to date to address the mysteriously cancelled meeting of March 5.  This was the aborted meeting where Dan and Will, and Jenny told us in April that she was included, too, were told there would be no meeting, because there wasn't a quorum.  Except the three of them were a quorum, but no one revealed that to them.  Well, Dan just had the hardest time formulating the essential questions: 1) who was Jenny's unnamed person who told her the meeting was cancelled, and 2) why did that person tell the three of them something that wasn't true.  But Dan stuck with it, and he stumbled around long enough to get the questions out.  1) Jenny couldn't bring herself to name the actual name, but she said that the only person who gives her information about things like that is the manager.  So, that was the answer.  It was Krishan Manners who lied to her, and to Dan and Will.  It was at least as hard work for Dan to put together the other question: 2) Krishan claimed that there is an investigation going on about this matter (that's true; there is), and he therefore would not be able to reveal why he told three people something that wasn't true.  And that was as far as we got.

During public comment, Mac Kennedy made an exquisitely cryptic reference to someone who has applied to be on a Board, but who should really be closely investigated through public records, including court records!  He said he couldn't name names, because his partner, Dan Schneiger, really didn't want him being so explicitly outspoken.  Mac suggested Commissioners investigate carefully before they place a potentially highly problematic person on a Board.  Who knows if Jenny Johnson-Sardella had any idea what Mac was talking about.  But she decided approving new Board members might be premature, under the circumstances of Mac's non-revelation.  Big Mama, though, reassured her girl, Jenny, that she, Big Mama, had certainly done all the homework she needed to do, and she had no further questions.  There was nothing more she needed to know.  She was ready to vote.  But J-J-J-Jenny and the Boys got cold enough feet to agree to defer this matter to the next Commission meeting.  In the meantime, Mac told me he would send all the Commissioners e-mails that would reveal what he thought they needed to know.  Well, what all of them except Big Mama needed to know.  Big Mama doesn't need to know anything.

One of the complaints made and repeated in public comment was about our current legal advisors.  Specifically, people complained about the exorbitant fees charged by our new team, and about the almost uniformly wrong advice we've been getting from Big Mama's new girl, Rebecca Rodriguez.  There were suggestions that Rebecca was incompetent, that we were overpaying, and that we should get new counsel.  Eventually, it got to be Rebecca's turn to defend herself.  But even before she did, it was frankly noteworthy how little reaction Rebecca produced, in the face of being accused and demeaned as she was.  Anyone who expected her to flinch, or to be uncomfortable in her chair, or to cry, or to leave the room in embarrassment, was disappointed.  And Rebecca's defense was to ignore most of the complaint (most especially the part about all the wrong advice, that was specifically cited by those complaining), and to resummarize her resume.  One entry she thought was worth our attention was her inclusion in some group of Florida lawyers.  She presented this as evidence of her having been noted as a lawyer of credit and accomplishment.  It turns out that the group of which Rebecca was a part had about 50 lawyers in it, and being included in a group like that is about as impressive as someone in banking or finance having the title "vice president."  They all do.  The janitor is the Vice President of Environmental Maintenance.  But the skew for the Village, and for the neighbors complaining, was that they think Rebecca is hired to be the Village attorney.   She's not.  She's hired to run interference and offer protection for Big Mama.  And she reacted as if she felt unfairly picked on.

Big Mama, too, complained about being picked on.  She accused Dan Samaria of picking on her, and falsely accusing her of various things.  She accused me, and Chuck Ross, of the same thing.  She seemed to think it was all so unfair, and unjust, and distinctly undeserved.  Big Mama hasn't done anything wrong, and nothing of which she's been accused.  We know that, because she told us so.

And to show what a dutiful person she is, she agreed that the Commission should more closely examine things like the exorbitant legal bills she's created.  Her first gambit, last month, was just to ask for more money to give her Rebecca.  But this month, under heavy pressure from her neighbors, she admitted maybe the Commission should look harder at the expenses.  Although it's unclear there's anything to find, since every area of expenditure was explained away.  In fact, Big Mama's Rebecca girl said, she has comped the Village some legal time.  She just decided that the bill was so high--she's paying close attention, and she's compassionate, that one--that she would just go without charging us for some things.  And sure enough, when the bill was closely examined, there were 185 hours of legal time, and Rebecca didn't charge us for three of them.  I hope anyone who complained, about Rebecca or about Big Mama, feels suitably humbled by the generosity of this gesture.

And that's how we spent over four hours.  Which accomplished nothing.  But which will appear on Rebecca's next bill.