We’ll be brief since clearly he cannot

Since taking office as President in 2005, Bob Abboud has presided over eighty-four regular Village Board meetings. In seven years, twelve of these meetings have gone beyond midnight.  Of those, three have occurred in just the last seven months, after public comment was moved to the end of Village Board meetings by President Abboud.

Why have our recent Village Board meetings become so protracted?  Our Board is not battling land disconnection(s) or freight trains through some neighborhoods, as they once did.  Nor are they presently debating controversial, discussion intensive topics, such as cell towers or lighting ordinances.  When they were, only about one in ten meetings lasted beyond midnight.  Lately, however, the odds of a marathon Board meeting are approaching one in two.

The only change since 2005 is the composition of Board members and the postponement and limitation of public comment.  So why are so many Board meetings dragging on into the next day in recent months?  The data indicate that Board members would prefer to listen to themselves, rather than their constituents.  But we’ll leave that to our readers to decide.

–         The Observer