Hard to find enough facts to capture from the 12-14-09 selectmen's meeting. Six months of this "different direction." Direction?
We had some non votes; several non decisions; a fair amount of unfinished, table-until-the-next-meeting topics.
Was this disarray? Is there a plan, but we're missing it?
We had a chairman, who, if wanting to make some little point, had to physically lean out past the vice chair - who, himself, wanted to make many major points - and whose back was squarely in the face of the chairman most of time.
We had a vice chair who, in the effort to make some of his points, presented vague time lines, incomplete information, and un-researched financial forecasts to well placed questions from another selectman who had actually read the material all 5 selectmen had in front of them.
Tonight, as so often during the last 6 months, there seemed to be laws, if not favorable to the 3-2 split majority, that were "only one opinion." Rules and ethical questions were ok to ignore if the person "did it [the violation] out in the open...didn't try to hide it."
A certain selectman's signature created an ethical question re. his ability to vote on a particular issue, thus creating a dilemma for the 3-2 split majority's agenda. One well prepared citizen from the floor brought documents and a well-reasoned argument; a second well-prepared statement followed from an individual who has somehow managed to escape the rampage of the Ivey Termination and Expulsion decree; both citizens firmly addressed the situation that had the board headed toward ethical derailment.
At that point there was an almost imperceptible change in the atmosphere. The focus on agenda driven items seemed to waver.
Postures stiffened; tight jaws, flushed faces, quickened speech began to appear at the front table for some. Sentences became even more circular than before, and in one or two places there was the suggestion of a stammer. Were some folks flustered?
Was this disarray? If there can't be bending of laws and successful bullying and prepackaged decisions, are things coming unraveled? Can an agenda driven largely by anger and vindictiveness survive?
Disarray - things out of alignment; disjointed approach; crooked lines of thought or logic; a fumbling for words or reasoning?
So, tonight, did we see a different direction? or disarray?
