"Gotcha!"

I used this word in Tuesday night's post about the Commission meeting, because it was a word Mac Kennedy used for the foolish antics used by Ginny O'Halpin against Roxy Ross.  And it's probably worth telling a bit more of a story about this interchange.

As a frame of reference, it was in the last Commission meeting, or the one before that, that Roxy thought it was necessary to point out that David Hernandez was supporting the idea of a contract extension for police chief Luis Cabrera, but it was Luis who originally recommended that David apply for a job with the Village, when we decided to reinstate the position of public works manager.  Roxy thought this might represent a basis for some conflict of interest, so to speak, because David was now advocating, if you look at it in a certain way, to repay the person who got him this job, which turned out to be a lot more job than David applied for (and a lot more money), and Roxy referred to this connection between David and Luis as the "elephant in the room."

So, this past Tuesday night, when we were supposedly going to talk about our search for a new permanent attorney, for which we advertised, and for which there were by then four applicants, one of whom was our current interim attorney, Ginny stopped the conversation.  She had some very important questions to ask.  Her questions were structured more like an interrogation than just getting information or clarifying things, and I'm sure this was part of the reason for Mac's characterization: an attempt to say "gotcha!"  And curiously, and presumably symbolically, at the end of her interrogation, Ginny summarized that she was just addressing "the elephant in the room."

Ginny wanted to know if Roxy ever before worked with John Herin outside the Village, and further, if she ever called him for informal advice.

On the one hand, part of this is old news.  When we hired John originally, Roxy spoke positively about him, and she said she had known him for some time, and that they had worked, although entirely separately, at the same law firm X number of years back.  I don't remember if she said his value was proven to her by her possibly having consulted him informally about a thing or two over the years.  She might have said that.

But on the other hand, I know Ginny, a little bit.  Many of us know her, a little bit.  She was always a pleasant and friendly enough person, with a kind of charm, or perhaps cuteness, to her.  But apart from the fact that she is our neighbor, she was never involved in the Village.  She does not come to meetings (and certainly not to a certain meeting maybe a couple of years ago, where Roxy would have said she knew John Herin and could recommend him with confidence).  So the question becomes, how would Ginny even have known about this past connection between Roxy and John?  Who would have primed her with this question?

Not only was this question unimportant at the time it was asked, but it was, as Mac characterized it, aggressive.  It was asked as if the answer would in some way be compromising to Roxy, or to John.  But the reason the question was unimportant at the time it was asked is that we weren't talking about John, or Fox Rothchild, or any of the applicants.  We were supposedly only talking about the fact that we had four applicants, and we were discussing the possibility of arranging to interview them.  And even that was aborted, because Dan Samaria figured a way out of avoiding making even that decision.  And Ginny jumped at the chance to dodge taking responsibility to complete a task.  And Will Tudor realized this was mental heavy lifting he could get out of doing.  So we never discussed any of it.  We'll just readvertise, and see if we can get more applicants.

This nonsense about Roxy and John was misplaced.  But it was on a piece of paper in front of Ginny, and she couldn't restrain herself from trying to "get" Roxy with it.

Clearly, Ginny was trying to give Roxy her comeuppance, for Roxy's having pointed out something a month before about David Hernandez, whose position cannot be other than an embarrassment to Ginny.  And if, somehow, Ginny's not embarrassed, she's at least downwind of a lot of criticism for her failure to start, and to have started months ago, a proper manager search.  Even if David applies, which he might.  And even if Ginny et al decide to hire him for the permanent position, which they might.  And which they can.  I've even told them that.  I've told them that if they're satisfied with David, then do the proper search, and hire David.  At least it then becomes legitimate.  It isn't legitimate now.

But there's still that other question: who put poor Ginny up to this?   Who gave her the toy gun, and told her to try to scare Roxy with it?  I can only assume it's some subversive person who has decided s/he is mad at Roxy for some reason.  And of course, someone with a lot of influence over poor Ginny.