As the Curtain Rises on the Second Act...

UPDATE: Because tomorrow is Three Kings Day (or Epiphany, or Twelfth Night), and Bob Barron's wife apparently observes one of these, the meeting has been rescheduled to Wednesday, January 13^th, at 7:30 PM.

After the no-show acts by Messrs. Picard and Barron at last month's Council inquiry into the $1.2 million dollar transfer from the Police Pension fund (so that the City could "pay its bills"), the first big question is:

Will Barron & Picard show up on Wednesday?

If either (or both) decline the Council's "request", then all the rest of the big questions remaining - of which I've stated but a few in this earlier post - cannot be answered...and this meeting will be nothing more than another waste of our time.

I've been hearing rumors that Da Robba, at least, might not show. If he doesn't, the Council will be faced with two options:

• Drop the issue - The plan of these two seems to be to simply out-wait the Council's interest in this matter, in the hopes it will go away. After all, the City did put the money back in a few days later; what's all the big deal? If they can drag this out long enough, eventually the public's attention (and the Council's) will fade away.
  

• Issue a subpoena to these two to appear under oath - As outlined in my earlier post, the Council has the power to force members of the Executive branch to appear before them. If then they still defy the Council, they could be subject to criminal action as well as monetary fines. I'd start researching how much of a fine they could levy, as it appears that Picard's (and Barron's) hubris knows no bounds.

My hope is that the Council takes the second option, simply because this transfer - which was designed to stay "under the radar" - was done for a good reason. But no one in the Administration wants to tell us exactly what that good reason is.

Are we looking at another big increase in property taxes? Only these two can give us the answers...and they don't seem to wanna talk.

(By the way, the illustration wasn't intended to resemble our $145,000 per year Finance Director...I don't even know if he owns a red suit!)