Poor Judith Gersten

Judith Gersten told us she's lived in BP for 26 years.  And she's seen lots of Commissions come and go.  Some were mediocre, and some were bad.  And none of them did a thing for BP.  Until now.

Judith says the present Commission has done lots of great stuff for BP.  And they're the only ones who ever did.  She didn't specify what this Commission has done, but she was so authoritative about it-- and 26 years is more than long enough to know-- that you just knew she had to be right.

But the thing that really irked Judith was that little and insignificant knot of people who just get up and criticize this wonderful Commission.  Judith made very clear that these whining and angry people most definitely do not represent the residents, and certainly not the voters, of BP.  These people just have bad attitude.  And anyway, what do they know?

Frankly, I suspect Judith might have been talking about people like Mac Kennedy, who's only lived in BP for maybe, what, 4-5 years?  What does Mac Kennedy know about the history of BP and its governments?  You know, Judith made the point that she's not one bit concerned about stuff like bills from attorneys.  "You should be," Mac pointed out.  Judith diplomatically ignored Mac.

Hey, Judith could have been talking about me.  I've only been here for 14 years.  That's just about half as long as Judith has.  Judith has much more perspective than I do.  OK, I myself was a Commissioner, and Judith wasn't, and I was on Planning and Zoning, and the Code review committee, and the Foundation.  But she's been here so much longer, and seen so much more, that I really have to concede to Judith's greater history.

I bet Judith was talking about Chuck and Roxy Ross.  They've only lived here, what, let's see, maybe about 30 years or so.  Why, that's not much longer than Judith has lived here.  And fine, Roxy was a Commissioner for nine years, and Mayor for two, but Judith has been paying attention.  Judith has watched from a distance, and not been distracted by getting all caught up in things, as Roxy has.  And what's the big deal about Chuck?  Is he supposed to get points for being the CrimeWatch chairman for maybe 8-10 years?  Says who?

And who else complains really?  No one.  Well, when I say no one, sure, the Kuhls complain.  But they haven't been here more than maybe, oh, I don't know, 35 years?  All right, fine, so they've seen a bit more than has Judith.  And yeah, Gary Kuhl has been on Code Compliance for years, and is the chairperson.  And he was on the Code review committee for several years.  And Barbara's been on Parks and Parkways for who knows how many years.  And both of them attend Commission meetings, Barbara without fail.  But they're probably just, I don't know, jealous.  Yeah, that's it, they're jealous.  Neither of them has ever been on the Commission.  They just complain about the fine people who are, because they're jealous.

So that's it for the critics.  I mean except for the Andersons.  When did they move in here?  I'd say not more than, oh, 35-40 years ago.  And what do they know about Commissions?  What, because Bob was a Commissioner for 20 years, that means he can tell a good one from all the bad ones?  He was never on a good one.  He sure didn't pick up how good this one is.  Why, it wasn't more than a month ago that Bob was publicly announcing that he had supported this Commission, but they had been a huge disappointment, and he didn't approve of them any more.

And there you have it.  No one else criticizes.  Yeah, OK, so what if Linda Dillon, who never has a bad word, or much of a word at all, to say about anyone, criticizes the only Commission Judith says ever did anything for the Village.  Linda hasn't been on 115th St more than maybe 40 years.  Or so.  It sounds like a lot of time here, but it's somewhat less than twice as long as Judith has been here.  And if you think Linda has seen it all, because she never, ever misses a Commission meeting (Judith more or less never, ever attends Commission meetings), and she's been on Code Compliance for years, you're...hey, you might be right about Linda.

Anyway, Judith told us what's what tonight.  This Commission is the real deal.  They accomplish things, and no other Commission ever has.  And just tonight, for example, we saw what this Commission has accomplished.  We had a presentation from our long time lobbyist, Dave Caserta, and our state Senator, Jason Pizzo, and they told us what they've done, and what they're still working on for the Village.  No, no, that had nothing to do with this Commission, but this Commission expressed appreciation for the accomplishments.  Hey, if you thank someone for doing something, that's just as if you had done it yourself.

And our finance director, Paul Winklejohn, made a presentation.  He let us know how under control are our finances.  Sure, a nod to Roxy Ross, and Chuck Ross, for giving him some vital heads ups, but the person to whom he says he speaks "every day" is Tracy Truppman.  Wait, Tracy calls him "every day?"  That's what he said.  Tracy tried to shut him up, as if there was some problem with her talking to him, taking his time, for which he bills us, every day.

Tracy doesn't like things like this distracting from her real accomplishments.  So, when Dan Samaria had an agenda item to talk about those massive and uncontrolled legal bills, Tracy did what you might expect her to do, to reduce the unnecessary distractions: she tried to get this agenda item pulled.  Hey, no need to be looking into this.  And anyway, if we're questioning legal bills, then we can't do it in front of our attorney (for some reason).  And if we should have an attorney, but we can't look into legal bills in front of the attorney, then it appears we really can't look into legal bills at all.  Like the one Roxy Ross mentioned, for about $4000, representing over 20 hours, IN ONE DAY!  And four of the hours were billed by...our attorney...when she attended a Commission meeting to make a presentation to see if she could get hired.  She billed us for four hours, to attend a meeting that was her job interview.  And two of her associates came with her, and each one billed us separately for the same meeting.  Who can question this?  Well, it appears no one can.  And Judith Gersten is just perfectly fine with that.  And funny enough-- crazy enough-- Judith is...an attorney!  I guess she's an attorney first, and a BP resident and taxpayer second.  What a waste of 26 years.

There was very little on the agenda tonight.  In the old days-- the Mayor John Hornbuckle days-- a meeting like this would have been worth two hours or less.  Tonight, it was around four hours.  And it included accomplishments like Betsy Wise supposedly reporting on her April "branding workshop," but trying to explain why she wasn't actually going to report on it at all.  And arguing over how much we should pay a magistrate we can't hire anyway, because this highly functional Commission never changed the Code to allow for hiring a magistrate.  So that was an empty waste.

Yeah, I guess Judith thought she had a point to make.  She intended to have one.  It just really wasn't clear what it was.  What we witnessed was people who can't get enough of listening to themselves talk, and part of the ongoing collection of distortions, misrepresentations, and outright lies.  Sometimes, it takes a good deal of care, deliberation, and patience to accomplish nothing.  It did tonight.