“It was just my imagination, once again, running away with me.”
Wednesday evening all creatures ever created by man including the Mayor of Imaginationland were present at the Town Hall, and for the briefest moment, I believed, I saw a leprechaun scurry haphazardly across the Council of Nine’s table with South Park’s nasty man Cartman and his sidekick Kyle in pursuit.
“Imagination. Imagination.”
It was through the portal of political mediocrity that I found myself transported to the land where anything is possible and nothing is for real. After six years, and several dead trees worth of paper work, endless nonsensical numbers, and baseless reports, it seems the Town Council was never really serious about the school construction project known as Option A-Baseline, after all. Described in the Town’s flyer (mailed to every residence) as consisting of “roof replacement, energy improvements, and other renovations,” it seems Option A was never really a…well… option. And, the renovations were not really, well… renovations.
“Imagination.”
Unknown to everyone (apparently) there was an invisible, secret, magical 20-year span of time under which the repairs listed in Option-A Baseline were to be made. Worse still, the cost estimates in Option-A did “not take into account constructing all of the ALTERATIONS simultaneously.”
What?
Are you serious?
Where is the accountability for bringing the public to this juncture in the process?
And, did I hear that correctly?
“These were guesstimates!” The Mayor of Imaginationland sputtered in her defense of the indefensible, the unfathomable, the politically unimaginable.
Huh?
Six years into the process of a proposed $52.6 million dollar expenditure and the Town Council is still using conjecture, inadequate data and incomplete information? Worse still, and despite the very overwhelming public outcry, the majority party on the Town Council insisted upon cramming Option-E down the public’s throat with a preliminary motion to bring it to a referendum in November?
Imagination.
Through the barrage of confusion, nonsensical subterfuge, and volumes of smoke blown up the posterior of every creature in the room, the majority party on the Town Council left a lasting impression—of doubt, mistrust, anger and resentment—in the public’s imagination.
