The December 28th Paris Selectmen's meeting was spectacular. Really beyond all imagination. Designed to shock and awe.
They thought.
*Paris has a new town manager. With a rock solid contract.
*Some pay warrants - well, not too sure about them, but some got paid... and others were going to be checked on to see what was in them....lawyer fees and all....maybe? Or not.
*A new item magically appeared on the agenda just today. Tricky, huh? Guess when a couple of Paris voters asked back a few weeks ago to get on the agenda - and didn't because "they missed the deadline" - were plain old unlucky. Or ...
The magically appearing item was a brand new proposed recall ordinance. Shiny new. Well, actually, it did have to be removed from the office to be "tweaked" a few days back, it was said. So, almost shiny new. Guess the 1556 "for" and 537 "against" (43 no vote) recall ordinance vote on November 3, 2009 didn't suit.
*Next, a very quick - and really soon - Open Town Meeting plan; coming up January 7. All the items you ever wanted to have on a warrant and then some - especially if you were thinking that your term of office might be shortened in the near future and you had places to go and promises to keep.
*And a new interim town clerk appointed. How utterly normal.
Explanations were not so plentiful, or responses to questions; and toward the end, it was pretty fuzzy whether the meeting was over - or whether there were quiet negotiations going on while the audience chatted (thinking, obviously, that since they had heard"adjournment" called for and the next thing that happened was conversation in the audience, that it probably was adjournment. But it wasn't at all; because a couple of people up close to the table discovered all sorts of things were being discussed. Surprise!)
Selectman Herrick tried valiantly to wade through the molasses and sort out situation after situation - and perhaps he did; but, from the audience, no one could tell.
Some smug faces in the audience, a sneer or two. Some very quiet. Some angry.
But nobody in the room was even remotely shocked. And there was no room at all for awe. Of any kind.
Really, call NPC-TV, 743-7859, and find when the video of this meeting can be viewed. Or order one for yourself. You have to see this to believe it.
