I Want to Go On a Bit About Rafael Ciorida

I've already said I don't trust Rafael, and I believe I made clear what my issues are.  At the same time, I like him.  I like him a lot.  I would like to have Rafael-- he says to call him Rafa-- as a friend.

And here's a potentially important consequence of not trusting Rafa.  Mac Kennedy is a guest author on this blog.  So is Ginny O'Halpin.  There are 18 guest authors, apart from me, on this blog.  Guest authors have complete access to the blog.  They can do anything I can do.  They can publish anything they like.  They can also have access to anything that's been published.  They could edit something that was already published, or that's a draft, even if it wasn't theirs.  They could delete a post, or a comment, or a draft, even if it's someone else's.  I have to be able to trust guest authors not to do that.  I wouldn't do it, and no one else is allowed to do it.  I have removed three guest authors, either because they did that, or because I came to suspect they would.  I want Rafa to be a guest author, if for no other reason, then because it would help him in his campaign.  I've told this to Rafa.  But for me to have the blog send him an invitation to be a guest author, I have to trust that he won't make mischief.  One of the three people I have removed as guest authors is Tracy Truppman.  She posted something once.  It was a post in favor of outsourcing sanitation.  But I didn't make her a guest author, because she happened to agree with me about that.  I wouldn't have cared what position she espoused.  I made her a guest author, because I thought then that I could trust her not to mess with anyone else's stuff.  When I decided I could no longer trust her that way-- that I couldn't trust her to be honest and respectful-- I removed her.  If I have to worry that Rafa and Tracy are more in league with each other than either of them is admitting, then I can't trust Rafa.  And I will say again, Tracy is extraordinarily controlling.  She's off the charts controlling.  And if I know that Mac Kennedy can't possible be a Tracy stooge, and I'm sure Ginny O'Halpin couldn't, either, and Tracy didn't put up any of her usuals, and I know she desperately needs one more stooge, then to me, Rafa is it.  Especially if his connection is Krishan Manners, who is very, very firmly under Tracy's thumb, and who will evidently do anything for her.

I don't like it this way.  I don't like not trusting Rafa.  I want to trust him.  But he's not giving me a basis to do it.

Anyway, here's what I really wanted to discuss about, and with, Rafa.  Rafa is a comparative unknown in BP.  And he's doing a very unusual style of campaigning.  I haven't heard of any events for him, and he reportedly won't use yard signs.  He's running for office, and he wants votes from people who don't know him, but he's flying under the radar, and campaigning in a stealthy way.  So the thing that springs to mind for me, conspiracy theorist that Rafa says I am, is that he's getting help that's not visible.  He's getting help from Tracy Truppman, in the form of phone calls or whatever style of leaning on people that Tracy does.  And if recent history is any indicator, then this might be very effective.  Rafa might very well win a just under three year seat or a just under one year seat on the Commission.  So my question is, then what?  And I'm asking specifically.

For example, the thinnest possible majority for a BP Commission-- two out of three remaining Commissioners-- just passed an Ordinance on second reading.  The Ordinance was to spend money the Village really doesn't have to waste on a Code infraction special magistrate.  And not one Village resident who is not one of the two Commissioners who just passed this Ordinance spoke in favor of it.  Everyone who had anything to say, except two Commissioners, was against it.  And it's now an Ordinance, passed into Village law by two Village residents/Commissioners over the objection of everyone else who expressed an opinion.

But the other Commissioner, Dan Samaria, the one who voted against this scheme, says he intends to bring this issue back for reconsideration when there's a full Commission.  Dan asked the skeletal three-person Commission not to consider this matter for second reading, because the Commission was too small to be fairly representative, and we're about to get two new Commissioners in one month from now, but the two majority Commissioners refused to wait.

So my question to you, Rafa, is this.  Supposing you somehow get elected, which, without help from Tracy Truppman, would seem out of the question, and supposing the magistrate Ordinance finds itself immediately back on the agenda.  How would Commissioner Rafael Ciordia vote?  I'm asking.  Rafa, Dan Samaria will put this back on the agenda.  Tracy and Will will vote as they did before.  Dan will vote as he did before.  Either Ginny or Mac will vote some way.  Let's imagine, to make the discussion interesting, that either of them votes to return to a Code Compliance Board only.  How will you vote?  I know you'll remind me that you don't know much about the issues, and you intend to learn, but the issue is now.  You were at the last meeting, where the issue passed on second reading, and I'm not sure you weren't at the meeting before that, when there was first reading.  All of your neighbors who expressed themselves don't approve of this.  How will you vote?

And I'll ask you the same question about the other Ordinance on this past week's agenda.  It was the rules and procedures Ordinance, and it was for first reading.  It was a terrible idea, and not one of your non-Commissioner neighbors liked it.  Dan Samaria didn't like it.  The only two people who liked it were Tracy Truppman and Will Tudor.  So those two people voted to pass it on first reading.  And again, to make it interesting, let's suppose you win a seat, and either Commissioner O'Halpin or Commissioner Kennedy doesn't like this Ordinance.  You're the tie-breaker.  Break the tie.  How will you vote on this one?  (Dan Samaria persuaded his two Commission colleagues to set this for second reading in February.  He's saving it for you.)

Or, let's make the same suppositions, and assume Tracy and Will think Tracy should be the mayor, and Dan and either Ginny or Mac think she shouldn't.  Break that tie.

I hope I'm wrong, but I think Tracy still has juice around here.  I think she's going to get you elected.  And as one of your constituents, I want to know what you're going to do.