Dumbing Down Doesn't Get Much Dumber Than This

Today, Gary Kuhl resigned from the Code Compliance Board.  He cited various problems related to lack of current Commission and administrative support of the Board.

Among other things, Gary complained about "the Code Officer's history of repeatedly failing to provide the board with backup material in a timely manner, cancelling meetings at the last minute, [and] bringing items to the board that were literally months past their compliance date."

And he pointed out that the Commissioners who want to replace the Board with a magistrate have never even attended a Code Compliance Board meeting.  How do they know what they want?  How do they know what they don't want?

As a frame of reference, Gary pointed out further that the Board's record is "unblemished," in that no Board decisions have been appealed to the Courts.

I don't know if Gary was just being diplomatic about it, but he said it was the manager who recommended replacing the Board with a magistrate, and he interpreted a "total lack of respect, professionalism, and integrity" that was "made worse by the Commission supporting [the manager's] recommendation."  As I said, Gary knows BP well enough to know who makes "recommendations," and who "supports" whom.

It's a tricky business when neighbors pass judgment on other neighbors, and when fiscal fines are involved.  Gary himself in a recent Commission meeting talked about concerns about "partiality," or the appearance of it, with an arrangement like that.  And I agree with him.  We went through that when we had a Code officer who was a Village resident, and there was a feeling that not all residents were treated the same, and impartially, by the Code officer.  Even if that wasn't true, people worried about it, and thought they sensed it.  There's no need for concerns like that.  And I don't know if anyone ever felt that way about the Code Compliance Board.  If no one appealed a Code Compliance Board decision, as they could have, then it's unlikely they did feel unfairly treated.  But that kind of dynamic could be a legitimate reason to want to have a Code Compliance decider who has no basis for partiality.  And that's the problem with this decision at this time.

The fact is that everything in Village government and management right now is personal, and personalized, and partial.  The Commission has been grossly patent about treating Village residents differently from one another, based on the personal likings and dislikings of the Commission (really just the mayor).  And the "proposal" (apparently already under way) is for the Village government (really just the mayor) to select a magistrate, with no input from anyone else, and that magistrate will be specifically beholden to the mayor for his or her gig.  And it's not a low-paying gig, either.  It couldn't really get any more personal, or partial, than that.  The mayor now has at least two Commission colleagues who are her stooges (whatever that's about), a manager who is her dutiful stooge, an attorney who is her stooge, and a Code officer who is her stooge.  She will now add to that a Code compliance decider.

And the mayor is so unashamed about this power grab that even though many Village residents complain publicly about it, she doesn't stop.  She doesn't even pause or slow down.

This is the opposite of representative government.  It is a minor fiefdom.  With decisions made by someone who is incapable of making them, and supported by people even less capable, and frankly uninterested.