Why do some elected officials believe that speaking on every agenda item is important during a meeting?

Is it that they like the sound of their voices? It can’t be for their oratorical ability. Perhaps, in Commissioner Fielding’s case, it is the last hurrah.

During this last BOCC meeting, there was no shortage of verbosity on the dais. I was singularly unimpressed with most of it. While a few Commissioners may feel that they are educating the public, I think it can show how little they actually do know. The more they talk, the less they listen to each other and the public. The public returns the favor. In other words, the Commission speaks an infinite deal of nothing.

Many may think that the current White House resembles a reality television show. I think the BOCC can be characterized as being populated by characters from Shakespeare’s plays.

There is a character much like Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor and the companion of Prince Hal in Henry IV. He boasts of past accomplishments and positions. Falstaff’s supposed expertise does not fool the women in Windsor or Prince Hal in Henry IV.

Then there is the Puck from A Midsummer’s Night Dream. The actor playing Puck leaves character at the end of the play to let us know that he knows that it is a play and not for real. Puck realizes, to take a line from another play, that “All the world’s a stage.”  It is nice that the Commissioner recognizes the joke.

We have our scorned Hero in Much Ado About Nothing who has been falsely accused of infidelity and not being true to her fiancé. She redeems herself through pretense. We think that she has shuffled off this mortal coil, but she springs back to life in the final act. Many await the results of December to see whether there will be a winter of discontent as a prelude to the glorious sun of summer.

Finally, I see the characters of Valentine and Proteus from Two Gentlemen from Verona. In one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, the duo compliments each other as they travel the Italian countryside (or governmental paths). We know the outcome of the conversation before the last words are uttered.

As I watched the last meeting, my mind wandered to these characters of fiction. It was a long meeting. There were some things of substance, but the rest was much ado about nothing. Yet our Commissioners had to go on as if the meeting was the thing.

After the election, when a new character is introduced, the Commission dynamic will change. Will the new character be Hero’s Beatrice or Falstaff’s squire? If we are lucky, the new Commissioner will not want to be anything but a Commissioner. Wouldn’t that be a novelty?