political posturing

Tonight you missed an old-fashioned love-in. Everybody was praising each other, hugging, and blowing air kisses at each other. First was Chet Fields, falling over himself heaping bouquets of compliments and praise for the great job the Council has been doing. It was about then that I began to get dyspeptic. It was embarrassing to have another cheerleader take the podium. Then they agreed to extend Gorlands contract and shoveled many more loads of... well.. manure in his direction. Gym was effusive in his unqualified support and praise of Gorland. Nobody mentioned the monies we lost from late withdrawals in our pension funds, the pool taping incident, or his lack of controls and procedures to document the pool admissions. Garcia made a special effort to compliment Gymbo for hiring Gorland, saying Gymbo has a "wonderful track record in the hiring of city employees, etc". Nobody even mentioned the BIG TIME screwup in the hiring of our most recent Rec Director. They reviewed the hiring process with NO discussion and, after congratulating themselves on doing a wonderful job AGAIN, made no changes or adjustments, or indications that ANY lessons had been learned from THAT experience! All is well. We are wonderful. We have NOTHING to learn from that unfortunate experience because we are so wonderful. It COULDNT have been anything WE did! There could have been more after that, but my dyspepsia had turned into regurgitation by then and I felt a need to excuse myself to the bathroom. Dotson wasnt there so NO serious questions were asked, or answered. A contrived farce to bolster each others standing, without a shred of evidence or balance to back up those accolades. No debate, no discussion, no serious inquiry, without Dotson. Political gladhanding in its most flagrant, obvious, and embarrassing form. Dr. Mel Johnson