The Neighborhood Council Files ~ Hidden Agendas

I am exhausted, but relieved. We had our first general assembly as a newly elected council, and it went smashingly. There’s something to be said for hard work and dedication. It is satisfying to be a part of a group working towards making things better. It is not easy to commit one’s personal free time to civic duty. A call that not all can answer, evidently, as we are now down to four active members after three of the starting seven have resigned.

We have made it one month. The anniversary date passed so quickly that I didn’t even notice it. But before the month was out, the first member had resigned when it was clear that he was not going to be able to bamboozle his way into convincing the other council members to change their mind about the conduct of the man behind the curtain. He was obviously a plant intended to sway the council into letting the man behind the curtain get his way. When that didn’t work, and it seemed that we were not interested in playing games, or at least not interested in being manipulated into playing the games the man behind the curtain wanted to play, he quit.

Fine. Good riddance. All he did was cause problems. Show up to a meeting, agrees to something. Then the next day, claim that we hadn’t discussed the topic fully, or that we hadn’t had a majority vote to move ahead with the thing he was now suddenly against. He was also the biggest security leak. Claiming that the general populace knew all the council business after the meetings. Considering that the only person who was reportedly at the center of all the gossip was him, it was clear HE was the security leak.

The next person to quit did so for seemingly unrelated reasons. Claiming sudden work conflicts. I am giving that guy the benefit of the doubt, even if the timing is incredibly unfortunate, only days after the first guy quit. But his evidence was there that his work had promoted him and therefore tied up more of his free time to fulfill his new obligations. Unfortunate, but whatever.

However, today, on the day of our first assembly, the third resignation came as a surprise. Although, in retrospect, perhaps not as much of a surprise considering what we have been up against. The effort needed to combat the man behind the curtain’s aggressive attempt to lie and cajole his way back into office is partly why the third member of the council decided to resign. His attention was already divided between his business, and frankly, we did not expect that things were quite this fucked up when we got up to volunteer for duty.

His timing may have been piss poor, but it is just as well. We can’t afford delays as we continue to move forward with the initiatives begun in the short time we have been in our positions. The thing about momentum is that initial effort will always be greater than the effort required to maintain the movement. We need everyone to get on board, or be prepared to be run over. Not slowing down this train, thank you very much.

We have been battling the misinformation campaign of the man behind the curtain. He was clearly in deep regret over his shortsighted, miscalculated decision to resign publicly the day after his other members had resigned. Only a week after he had messaged the council president that he was going to be working alone because the other two members had indicated they planned to quit over a difference of opinion.

It isn’t our fault that he’s a grown child masquerading as a man. Not our fault that he didn’t think his decision through. Not our fault that he decided then to try and curry favor from his neighbors in group 3 by spreading lies, and writing checks his ass couldn’t cash. Doesn’t help that we had receipts to invalidate every one of his claims. Unfortunate for him that he is an immature, emotionally stunted man-child who doesn’t have a professional bone in his body. Too bad for him, he thought he was going to undo our first assembly by bringing all of his friends to the meeting.

Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for the council, we came prepared. This is not my first rodeo. I have been on more committees, stood toe to toe against bigger and badder opponents than he could even fathom. So he arrived at this battle of wits, unarmed. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for us, we also announced the agenda for the assembly in advance. As we are supposed to do.

Fortunately for us and for the Colonia, the neighbors who showed up had already been expressing their displeasure at his mishandling of the neighborhood’s security, even if they hadn’t been voicing it loud enough for him to hear prior to the assembly. We heard, and we let everyone we had spoken to individually, as we handed out the flyers door to door, that we were there to support the neighborhood and better the Colonia overall. Our interest was to inform and provide a platform for change.

We had a massive turnout. Another thing he didn’t expect. He thought he was going to show up, like he did the day he got re-elected, and only have a handful appear outside of his personal friend group, and be able to manhandle his way to victory. Sorry, not sorry. He clearly misread the room and was using the tiny ruler he uses to measure himself to measure those around him. He clearly underestimated the remaining members of the council. We are in it for reasons that have nothing to do with personal gain; we have something he lacks: Objectivity.

With each agenda point that was addressed, he, or one of his friends, tried to derail the meeting. They came prepared with arguments and points of view. The funniest thing was that despite their canned speeches, they had just taken his word verbatim. His fake news was their reality. So each “claim” was quickly refuted with facts and receipts. One by one, they stood further and further in the back.

Their hidden agenda to “prove” that the council had allegedly bullied him into resigning, this was his big reveal, which fell splat into the center of the space. He had no actual proof. He tried one last time, claiming that we had accused him of mishandling funds, and we were like, oh yeah? When and what was said? And for what reason, when we know you don’t handle funds because there is an accountant? Hmm? Are you perhaps telling on yourself or have a guilty conscience? We asked the other members of his old security committee who had been present at that meeting if we had even discussed money, and they quickly shook their heads and backed off.

In the end, as the vote was raised to move forward with the transition, his resignation went into effect immediately, and he and his friends walked off quietly in defeat. They could have stayed to vote, but the vote was already unanimous against his pitiful attempt to lie his way back into a position of power. It was quite pathetic, really. And I would have felt bad for him if he weren’t so deluded and clearly in need of the public humiliation.