In Which It’s Fur or Fireworks
[Massive disclaimer - none of this should be considered fact. I'm not a reporter. I'm going off hastily scribbled notes that are about as impressionistic as this will be. Dialogue cannot be verified. The agenda does not follow the official agenda handed out.]
I don’t want to be fascist and tell you what flew this evening at the Town Council, but it went something like this.
Everything seemed to go swimmingly until the dreaded recycling center came up. Perhaps “swimmingly” isn’t the proper phrase to describe a tax presentation, but it wasn’t a contentious presentation.
Then came Mark Sideris’ report on the recycling center and “a motion to remove Filipello Park from consideration for a recycling center”.
Sideris gave his report, made some comments and the motion got put a – WAIT. Marilyn invokes charter privilege to table the motion but 1) doesn’t wait for a motion to be made and 2) as I recall, just kind of blurted it out without getting recognized. Clyde points out that no motion has been made. Marilyn says that it doesn’t have to be since she’s shooting it down. Thus the Clyde and Marilyn show began.
As a first time viewer, they’re both at fault. Yes, Marilyn jumps in without recognition but Clyde’s blood pressure rises too quickly and the whole thing descends to local politics directed by Robert Altman except louder.
Anywho, Clyde calls a five minute recess while Marilyn proclaims that you cannot call a recess in the middle of a motion being made. I don’t know the rules, but let’s say that Marilyn is right. A motion never got made. Several councilors leave their seats to mill around the chamber while Marilyn pummels (verbally) the town attorney for a ruling on the situation which she already knows the answer to. She goes on a nice monologue about calling the District Attorney and how the town government actually meets in the back rooms of pubs and the average citizen hasn’t got a chance.
The storm passes. The councilors reseat themselves. Clyde decides to move on to the next item and come back to the recycling center when cooler heads prevail. And so onto the community center.
Cooler heads? No such luck. Marilyn takes umbrage at the time of the 1:30pm meeting and I really couldn’t follow exactly what the problem was. Possibly it was in the back room of a pub.
I’ll get into the absolute insanity of Clyde’s request for the library to stop pedophiles entering the library by putting internet filters on the computers in the children’s section later. I promise.
Either way, it’s back to the recycling center and absolutely nothing has changed. Marilyn invokes Charter Privilege on a motion not yet made, to which Clyde responds, “Let’s get this motion made and seconded and then you can invoke charter privilege until Hell freezes over.” This causes Marilyn to go off on another reverie about being the only person ever kicked off a committee and starts in on some head and body shots on Clyde. Clyde damn near breaks his gavel calling for order and huffing that he will not be insulted in that fashion. More Altman-esque dialogue until Clyde thunders – “I WILL HAVE YOU REMOVED AND DON’T THINK I WON’T. Go ahead. Test me.”
“Shuh,” snorts Marilyn, “and you’re coming with me.”
Annnnd breathe.
Back to the Community Center. (Dialogue paraphrased and shortened)
Devaney: Isn’t there supposed to be a fiscal note to bring this up?
Donohue: It’s a concept. There can’t be an estimate on a building that doesn’t exist.
Devaney: There’s supposed to be a note
Donohue: It’s exploratory to see if anyone is interested. You can’t put a price on a building that you don’t even know if you want to build.
Devaney: There should be a note.
Back to the recycling center. Sideris says something to the effect of he simply wanted to make a motion to talk about it. Predictably, Marilyn invokes…well, you know. Clyde manages to spit out a motion, which someone seconds and Marilyn shoots down.
Clyde: See? That was simple
Marilyn: (snort) Simple. Yeah.
Another fiscal presentation. This time about the pension fund. If I understand it, the town currently manages it. The question is whether to give it over to the state. The General Manager points out that it’s making 8% return. Jonathan Hecht points out that out of 105 state pension funds only one is not making 8% and that the percentage of funding has decreased in the past couple of years.
There’s a reading of a loan order to pay for the police station and it’s on to announcements.
There’s this announcement, that announcement, the Raiders won the game at whatever the Boston Garden is called now and then and 10:12pm…
Marilyn starts talking about the recycling center again. Sweet fucking jesus. We’re thrown back into chaos. She makes a motion about something lost in the Altman-esque fray. Clyde repeats the motion. No second comes. “There is no second,” Clyde says tensely, “so it DIES.” Naturally, Marilyn’s not going to take this standing up and protests.
“There is no second,” seethes Clyde.
“Hrrrmph, hrrmph”, hrrmphs Marilyn.
“I’ll second,” pipes up Hecht.
“Don’t try to placate me,” she hisses.
“I’m not,” says Hecht, “I think we should talk about this. I think that everybody should be aware of what happened tonight – how one councilor spent the evening silencing debate on the issue of the recycling center only to bring it up during the announcement section so that we all had to listen to her and were not allowed to respond. Because that’s what happened.”
And in the back of my mind I heard the words, “Have you no decency, Senator? At long last, have you no decency?”
[Once again - this is subjective and not a complete picture of the meeting and should not be considered fact]
