The Long and Winding...Tortuous...Meandering...Aimless...Um...The August 4 Commission Meeting

Let me say that there was, in fact, an agenda.  I'm probably in denial, but some people knew better than I did.  Some people said this would be a long meeting.  The agenda didn't suggest that this would happen.  But it did.

For example, the first topic that got a good deal of discussion was Ginny O'Halpin's (or whoever controls Ginny) suggestion that we run meetings according to Robert's Rules of Order.  We sort of already do, and it's the mayor's decision anyway, and this required no discussion.  But it got way too much, followed by a vote.  Dan Samaria clarified and expanded that not only does he think we should use Robert's Rules, but we should even use Robert's Rules of Order.  And then, things got worse.

The entire Consent Agenda was pulled, because every item was wrong.  The Village clerk, who is now the interim manager, cannot properly do the job of Village clerk.

A number of Village residents commented on the first Resolution, which was about the 6th Avenue redesign.  Everyone agreed, even though residents said they disagreed with each other.  Everyone favored some improvement, and everyone wanted further exploration, mostly by workshop.  Will Tudor, who participated in this discussion, at one point said we needed resident workshops.  But he couldn't stop himself from having the Commission discussion everyone agreed we were not ready to have.  Will made one other interesting comment.  He agreed that this process had been mishandled from the start, and was not discussed among residents at large, or by the Commission.  You could almost forget that Will was there, and was part of the Commission that did not ask for public discussion, and enabled the "rogue" Commissioners who started this up without anyone's consent.  Will was then inexplicably ultimately the only "no" vote to delay, seeking more input.  That ended the first two hours.

Then...there was a discussion about whether or not the interim manager can hire and fire people.  This matter was not on the agenda.  What was most interesting is that Dan Samaria and Will Tudor, both of whom were firm that the interim manager should not have the power to hire and fire, also stood in the way of the Village's finding a proper permanent manager.  So these two Commissioners worked to handicap the Village with a manager who was not vetted, did not have the proper qualifications, could not even satisfactorily do her original job, and was not allowed to exercise the duties of the manager.  If Dan and Will could possibly have found more ways to sabotage the Village, it's not clear what they would have been.

And then, they voted, not on the issue they discussed, but on the issue that was on the agenda.  Which had already been agreed to at the last meeting.

The matter of whether or not to pay police officers a 1% increase for duties related to the coronavirus, apart from the fact that it was never defined, was made for people who love to listen to themselves talk.  For 30 minutes.  Without a vote, because no one could actually make any sense of it.  It was delayed.  (Wasn't there a movie about "The Gang That Couldn't Do Anything?"  Or something like that.)

Commissioners then offered their choices for committee members to choose a new manager.  Ginny impulsively appointed Milt Hunter.  No surprise there.  Milt appointed himself.  Mac Kennedy appointed someone unknown to most of us, Roxy Ross appointed Dan Keys, and Dan Samaria appointed Linda Dillon.  Will Tudor didn't get around to picking anyone, but he blamed his neighbors for running meetings that were allegedly intolerable to the people he claims he approached, and who he claims declined.  And that ended the third hour.

As valuable as Mac Kennedy is as a Commissioner, it took him way too long to explain why we should continue ZOOM access to Commission meetings.  And to imagine the caveats.  Listening to Dan Samaria and Ginny O'Halpin talking like computer experts was a bit disorienting.  As Mac correctly pointed out, "this is pretty easy stuff; let's move on."  Which they finally ran out of excuses not to do.

Dan Samaria introduced an item that he intended to focus and shorten meetings.  It's too bad it took so much time to discuss, and was apparently never intended to be resolved.  As Roxy Ross concluded, it was a complete waste of 25 minutes.

Village attorney John Herin arranged a settlement with Tracy Truppman's lawyers, Rebecca Rodriguez and Gray Robinson.  The final payment will be less than 50% of what was billed.  End of hour four.

John found a number of other things to present in his attorney's report.  Tick, tick, tick.  Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching.  None of it had a clear endpoint.

The rest of the crumbs used up the half hour extension.  And that extension, plus the other four hours, used me up.