New boss. Same as the old boss.

It's nearly spring and local politics is in the air all around Hill Chestnut Hill. Okay, that's hyperbole. A few people care and the rest are getting on with the daily business of living. But for that cluster which hyperventilates each spring, another community association board election is coming up in a few months, and the Actionistas, former SOCcers and others are positioning themselves for a run. Never mind whatever the Bowman/Local Committee to Resolve All That is Hurtful to the Prince develops as its final report; forget the reprise of the old Civility Code (Thou Shalt Not Speak Loudly Using Bad Words); put aside long-suffering Jim Foster's attempt to make sense of the mess of the board records for past few years. There are new issues and new grievances, evidenced by this report submitted this past weekend.

Let the race begin. And don't complain about the complainers. Complain about the damn issues (oops, a civility violation) and send us your responses, rebuttals and favorite recipes (the last in the style of a certain former Local editor -- one of those situations that typified the ineptness of the former CHCA regime).

We now present the opening thread of Campaign 2007: A Hill Taken.

Not the First First Big Mistake of the new CHCA administration, (that would be the bizzarrro selection of the Executive Committee) but one which will keep on giving was the selection of Lou Aiello as VP Operations. [As the] replacement for the do-nothing Chris "I'll get back to you" Kemezis, the Energizer Bunny with a finger in every pot started off the New Era with a bang.

Working alone, he managed (in one ham-handed act) to alienate half the SOC gang and all of the AA who'd survived the election by sending out pink slips to the Publishers' Committee and declaring the group 'null 'n void.' Not that it much deserved to live, especially since MMD (Maxine Dornemann) gave late-term mouth-to-mouth to Joe Pié and the Thin White Duke Doman hasn't run out his clock.

The pragmatists muttered "thanks, Lou, smooth move," and the Grande Dames who entertained daydreams about making nicey-nice with the rival team were shot down in
flames. "Just Move Forward" was to be the bipartisan battle cry led by Ross-Cowper and Hemphill, but Lou queered it with a keystroke or two.

Guess it's a moot point now that the curiously "reconstituted" Bylaws committee is rumored to have driven a stake through the Publishers' Committee anyway. Maybe the Lentz Policy, too, now that Bowman's wet dreams are center stage.

Bad luck in the guise of bad plumbing befell the new gang. "Floating" in the basement of Towne Hall was good news for Lou's Crews and his stable of sub-contractors. A couple of slaps on the wrist from the dreaded Oversight Committee about getting estimates fell on deaf ears when Aiello dug his heels in and refused to go outside his own Small Circle of Friends. Kemezis and Keintz were wrong last time around - it's NOT not a conflict of interest if "people know about it."

It looks like the temporarily triumphant Second Opinion Caucus had Lou to thank for its victory - it is said that he single-handedly sent out a thousand campaign letters. So what. He forgot to read the platform or even the campaign rhetoric stuffed in all those envelopes. He's pretty much been on the wrong side of every real issue since June - Bowman/Snowden, free press, the shopping of suspect or sloppily concocted information disguised as "fact," and having a clue about an ethical position on the sale of 8431 Germantown Avenue..........not to mention causing wide-spread brain damage to those who have to read his crap on the Special Secret Board Listserv.

But in these parts, what counts must be the accreditation of the True Hiller. Just ask Dottie Sheffield.

H.A.R.