Gettin' Schooled

So, an object lesson in ... stuff ...
Last night's council meeting was informative.
Don Byrd explained his resignation and retraction of same and declared it a dead issue.
Karen Smith got schooled during public comment by the Village Attorney regarding the Open Meetings Act, and how it's applied to committees on fact finding missions. (Do you think she reprinted her blog on the subject and ate it? Probably not; she was too busy having hallucinations about unicorns and cotton candy and peppermint)
Monica English got a lesson in working for the Downtown Development Authority, in which she learned that Anne Moceri, Heath Corey and Molly Howlett consider her an employee of the Village, even though she doesn't work for the Village, and those same people only want to make sure everything about her hiring is "above board." (stop snickering)
The council voted to hire Tom Ford as interim Village Manager for a hell of alot less money than we paid the former Village Manager. ($10 an hour not to exceed 30 hours a week, often less than that depending on what needs to be done [now there is a truly civic minded gent-kudos] and evidently he really is a Village employee)
Anne Moceri championed the cause of not including the names of people who speak during public comment, saying that you couldn't approve meeting minutes that included comments unless those same people were there to say that yes, in fact, they did say those things. (Then she choked on her coffee when it was suggested that recording meetings would take care of that. "What? We're recording meetings? We didn't vote on that!) (belly laughs allowed here)
Joe Pena was absent. Again. Some more. Still. (do you think after his performance last month he was too ashamed to attend? [ just heard a snort from the back row] What? It could happen...)
Linda Dancer's unemployment benefits were discussed.(she's been collecting benefits since her suspension) The Village is paying those directly since the Village opted out of Unemployment Insurance. So, good to know where the money (which the Village doesn't have) is going. 
The Deficit Elimination Plan was discussed, and in no uncertain terms, absence of same laid directly at the former Village Manager's door. A plan is being put together now, and really, that's all the Treasury Department wanted. (this is called taking care of business and moving forward)


So, good meeting, well attended by Villagers. 
We got schooled.
And it was informative.
Nice to be back in school.