Chief Cook (Will Not Wash Bottles)

This is coming into increasingly clear focus.  More people than I thought appear to know about it.

The Village is currently being run by Milt Hunter.  Milt's mechanism is that he has seduced Ginny O'Halpin, whom he encouraged to run for Commission, and Dan Samaria, whose main advisors used to be the Rosses and the Andersons, to imagine that he's a knowledgeable authority, and to do whatever he says.  Ginny never had any other source of mentoring, and Dan has disengaged from the people who were really knowledgeable, and who really cared.  I don't know if Milt has also seduced Will, or if Will's easy, because he couldn't care less anyway, and he's still under Tracy Truppman's "Roxy Ross is a criminal" thrall, so he just goes along.  But that's how Milt does it.

He gets the Commission to vote any way he wants them to, and from what I've heard at Commission meetings, it appears he doesn't explain to them his reasoning.  Either that, or Ginny and Dan don't understand, or they don't remember.  They just remember what Milt told them to do.  And they do it.  If Milt tells them to elevate and retain David Hernandez, and keep him in an interim position indefinitely, that's what happens.  If David quits, and Milt tells them to substitute Roseann Prado, she's in.

The question anyone might ask is why Milt does this.  And there are few reasons.  First, Milt has always believed, and communicated, that he considers himself a genius who is the only one who knows the real right way to do things.  Have you ever seen his blog?  Every post ends with his little slogan: "Standing Watch."  Like he thinks he's the National Guard, or some kind of savior or something.  I know what you're thinking: am I talking about Milt, or about Tracy Truppman?  It turns out it doesn't matter.  It's the same pathology.  That's probably why Milt, who worked so hard to get Tracy elected, wound up enraged at her.  He was jealous, and resentful.  She had the power he wanted.  Ginny and Dan do what Milt tells them.  Tracy didn't.  I guess she wasn't grateful and beholden to Milt for the help he gave her to get her elected.  He probably thinks he got scammed.  The result is slightly different, though, because Milt only doesn't know what he's doing.  With Tracy, there was an added component of vengeance and destructiveness.  In any event, one person I know summed Milt up this way: "Milt hates anyone who doesn't genuflect at his altar; anyone who doesn't follow the gospel according to Milt."  It's probably just a coincidence that it sounds so religious.

But it goes further.  Milt's crusade is not only to create the Village According to Milt Hunter.  It's also to exact revenge on a couple of people.  It used to be just one: Roxy Ross.  Why does Milt hate Roxy Ross?  Who knows?  I would consider the possibility that Milt knows, but he might not.  I can't imagine he would hate Roxy because she's vastly smarter than he is, and she genuinely cares, and she commits and takes responsibility.  Oh.  I answered my own question sort of thing.  Now, it's also Mac Kennedy, because Mac is functional and goal-directed, he's smart, he's ambitious for the Village, he's hard-working, and he's capable.  And perhaps worst of all, Mac disagrees with what Milt tells his puppets to do.  So maybe I'm not entirely right about Milt.  Maybe there is a small component of vengeance in him, too.

Coming back the pathetic comedy of David Hernandez and now Roseann Prado, it turns out there's a method to this madness.  The goal, as I understand it, is to stretch out the search for a permanent manager until after November, because Roxy Ross won't be a Commissioner any more after November.  The idea is that Milt doesn't want Roxy to have anything to say about a new manager, and no influence over the process.  But really, Milt doesn't have to worry.  His two stooges, and Will Tudor, who's along for the ride, just outvote Roxy, and Mac, anyway.  It's true there was a slip-up, though.  Somehow, the search process began this past week.  There was agreement to post an ad.  Interim manager Roseann, of course, got some things wrong, but these errors were picked up by the Commissioners who were paying attention (no, not Ginny, Dan, or Will), so it's possible the ad will be correct.  And if it is, we'll get some applicants.  Although Roseann is very busy with her three jobs, so she might forget to call publications, to get the ad placed.  But just as with the attempt to hire a permanent Village attorney, Dan Samaria might once again claim there aren't enough applicants, and we should wait longer, like until November.  At least he'll do that if Milt orders him to.  So Milt might get his wish anyway.

It's a weird thing about some people.  In BP, it could be Steve Bernard, or Noah Jacobs, or Tracy Truppman, or Milt Hunter.  But some people are just willing to create a lot of misery and actual destruction, just to be in charge of something, or to draw attention to themselves, or to spite someone.  And we pay for it.