Chapter 40

Cal was early. He was sitting in the front row of the City Council chambers going over his notes. The last time he had been there his presentation was halted by Wes Ingram and his army of college student volunteers.

There was a raised platform on which sat a long table underneath a green felt cloth. The seven chairs behind it were for Kyle Stevens, as Mayor, and one for each of the council members. Cal wondered if a couple of them were asleep as the meeting formalities were getting under way.

The great room had always been known to be a bit stuffy. The budget for the new heating and air conditioning system always seemed to get put off into the following year’s budget. Cal noted that there were extra folding chairs set up compared to the usual number for the monthly meeting. Considering the staleness of the air that was sure to develop he began planning on how he could make his presentation short and sweet.

And—speaking of the devil—there was Wes Ingram a few rows back and on the other side of the room. Next to him sat none other than Jennifer Davis, Cal’s electoral opponent. With the two sitting together, Cal knew that Ingraham was there to help Jennifer embrace the Midco Project. They were both Ross’ minions, after all. Both had opposed the project at one time. The wind was blowing in a new direction and they blew with it.

All of the council members were in attendance at this meeting. They were going through the preliminaries of approving the minutes of the prior meeting and taking care of ‘Old Business’. Next would be the ritual of approving the vouchers that the City Treasurer wanted to pay. Cal knew he had a while to wait before it was his turn to speak.

He glanced again at Jennifer and Wes sitting together. He chuckled to himself as he thought of Jennifer—who reminded Cal of a UCLA cheerleader—as Jack Ross’ alter ego.

“It looks like they’ve shown their colors,” Cal said to himself.

He wondered at how Ingram and Ross had come to crawl into bed together. They were supposed to be ideologically opposed to one another. The hypocrisy of it all made Cal want to laugh out loud. But he chose to let it go and went back to reviewing his notes.

There were stragglers still filing in as the council business proceeded. They were filling in the empty seats, to the apparent consternation of those early birds who had staked their favorite seats on the aisle. It looked like they were headed toward a full house.

Cal knew that in each of the folding chairs sat a person who had his or her own viewpoint on the project he was going to present. He wondered what they were thinking. There were a lot of possibilities. As many chairs that were filled would be the count of how many nuanced opinions were in the room, if one were to take a poll on the subject. It no longer mattered. It would be an up or down vote by the Council.

Cal wished that Roxie had been able to attend. At least she would have been able to compare notes—or, at least commiserate—at the Dew Drop after everything was over.

As he glanced about the chambers Cal caught Mildred Watkins’ eye and they gave one another in an almost imperceptible nod. If Roxie couldn’t be there, Mildred would have to do, although commiseration at the Dew Drop later on with Mildred would be out of the question.

He spotted a reporter from the local newspaper in the crowd and the remote van from the TV station from Ithaca had been parked in the nearby lot, so Cal knew that a lot was riding on how well he came off. Months of toil boiled down to thirty minutes of show-and-tell. It made him remember to straighten his tie.

“We’ll move on to ‘New Business’.”

It was Kyle Stevens chairing the meeting. His announcement made the murmuring among the audience cease.

They all found out that before the main event of the Midco presentation there were other items on the agenda. One was a petition for a Stop Sign at an intersection in the residential area. Another was a complaint by a citizen about a decision by the Zoning Board of Appeals.

The crowd groaned and returned to murmuring. Stevens had to use his gavel to get order.

“If they had read the Agenda handouts, they would have already known,” Cal said to himself.

Cal let his mind drift back to Roxie again. He wondered if, afterwards at the Dew Drop, she would have told him how he had messed everything up or if she would have just said that he did alright just to make him feel better.

Roxie was always honest, so at least he would have known for sure how his presentation had gone. Cal looked to the back of the chambers, wondering if Roxie had snuck in, just the same. She hadn’t, but he did see Herb Beale take one of the last open seats.

Kyle Stevens’ gavel woke Cal out of his daydream.

“Now we’ll move to the main agenda item,” he announced. “We’ll discuss the proposed lease of the Annex by Midco Corporation.”

The crowd applauded. That was the usual routine when the crowd was tiring of the preliminaries and the main event was on, at last. Stevens cleared his throat and the crowd fell silent.

“Now, I see that Cal Tucker is here to make his presentation,” Stevens began. “But really, I’m familiar with all the details. I’ll just lay out the whole thing real quick and let everyone know what it’s all about.”

Stevens paused and turned to Cal.

“Thanks for coming, Cal, but it looks like we won’t be needing you tonight,” he said.

Cal jumped to his feet.

“Kyle, this project is sponsored the County Economic Development and I...”

“Kyle, I’d like to hear Cal present it,” Mildred Watkins interrupted from her seat at the Council Table. “He’s the real expert on this. He negotiated the whole thing.”

The crowd began murmuring and Stevens smacked his gavel.

“Mildred, I just thought in the interest of brevity, we could...” Stevens began to say.

“It says here on the Agenda that was passed out that Cal Tucker is supposed to talk,” a voice in the crowd rang out.

The crowd began buzzing even louder. Stevens pounded his gavel once more. Cal wondered at the expression on his face—maybe anger, or just frustration.

“Cal, I guess the floor is yours,” Stevens said.

Cal picked up his presentation materials and stepped forward to a podium placed in the space between the council table and the audience off to one side. He turned it so he could face the council and audience at the same time. The crowd became quiet again.

“Thanks, Kyle,” Cal began. “And thank you, everyone for attending this meeting.”

Everyone knows that we’ve been trying to find an employer to occupy the old typewriter factory—now known as the Annex—for a number of years.

Midco Corporation is an international manufacturer and retailer...”

Cal laid it all out for them: how many jobs, what kind of jobs, Midco’s renovation, the appraisal, the lease payments, why the lease, payment of the maintenance, and all the rest.

The crowd listened in silence. Cal thought he saw some heads nodding up and down in approval. That gave him some confidence.

“This will bring good jobs that this county really needs,” he said. “It’s not only the construction jobs and the jobs in the Midco plant, itself. It’s all the services that Midco will need and the added spending power in the community to support our businesses.

“Not to mention the lease payments that the City Council can use to reduce taxes or add services—whichever they decide.”

Cal looked around the room. The audience looked satisfied. He decided it was best to quit while he was ahead.

“That’s the whole story,” he concluded. “I’ll take any questions from the Council Members and then from anyone else.”

He turned toward the Council seated at the table at the front of the chambers. They were shaking their heads.

“Any questions from the audience?” Cal asked.

A man rose from his seat.

“I heard that the northeast quadrant of the city would get cable TV outta this,” he said.

“That’s right,” Cal said, “and natural gas pipelines, too.”

A number of the audience erupted in cheers.

“I’ve got a question,” a woman’s voice rang out.

It was Jennifer Davis. She stood up and faced the TV camera that was in the back of the room.

“Go ahead, Jennifer,” Cal said.

“First,” she declared, “I’d just like to say that we all owe a debt of gratitude to our State Senator, Jack Ross, for making all this possible for our community.”

The crowd spent a few seconds murmuring among themselves. A few applauded on their own and then Kyle Stevens picked up the cue and applauded and then the entire room joined in. After a few seconds the room fell silent once again.

“Second,” she went on, “I’d like to know why the contract doesn’t mandate that Midco use union labor on the construction project. Those technical details were up to you, Cal. Maybe, if you’d stayed home instead of traipsing off to Maine...”

The crowd began murmuring again and Jennifer stopped herself as the crowd began drowning her out.

“Right you are again, George,” Cal said to himself as he recalled the decision to have Roxie stay away from the meeting.

As he waited for the crowd to quiet down he decided to ignore the remark about his Maine trip.

“As you know, Jennifer, state law mandates that any workers on construction projects on municipal property have to be paid at union scale,” Cal replied.

Davis stood still for a moment. Cal thought she looked confused. Then she raised an index finger in the air.

“But, it’s Midco’s project, not the City’s,” she proclaimed.

She crossed her arms over her chest and jutted out her chin. Cal spotted her glancing at the TV camera out the corner of her eye.

“It will be at the Annex—and the City of Appleton owns it. That means it has to be union scale,” Cal answered. “You knew that, didn’t you, Jennifer?”

He looked past Jennifer to Wes Ingram sitting in the chair next to where she was standing. He had his face buried in his hands and he was shaking his head. Cal turned to the council table and Kyle Stevens was motioning with his hands to have Jennifer sit down.

“You knew all that, didn’t you, Jennifer?” Cal repeated.

“I ... I ... um ... I was just checking. It’s important to check these things,” she stammered and then turned and took her seat again next to Ingram.

Cal thought about rubbing it into his opponent one more time but thought better of it. Piling on might have made people feel sorry for her.

“Any more questions,” Cal asked.

No one stood.

“We can vote on the contract, then,” Kyle Stevens said.

The clerk called the roll and it was a quick, unanimous vote.

“The contract is approved,” Stevens announced, and slammed his gavel for good measure.

Cal wasn’t surprised. There was no reason not to approve it and Jack Ross had decreed it weeks beforehand.

“We have additional items to cover,” Stevens said. “We’ll take a short recess so that anyone who came just for the Annex discussion can leave now without disrupting the rest of the meeting.”

Cal started packing up his materials. He stopped and stepped to the council table where Mildred Watkins was sitting.

“Thanks for bailing me out, Mildred,” he said to her.

“You’re welcome, Cal,” she replied, “but I think it’s you who are bailing us out.”

Cal looked down and scuffed his shoes on the floor.

“Jeez, Mildred,” he said, “just doing my job.”

“Anyway, Cal, I was happy to help you out.”

Cal stepped a few paces to Kyle Stevens’ seat.

“I’ll send Mr. Tanaka an email and let him know we’re ready to go,” Cal said. “The legal department can crank out the lease tomorrow. Then, we’ll just need to arrange a signing.”

“Whatever you say, Cal,” Kyle mumbled.

The additional items on the agenda were the hiring of a Department Head for the City Recreation Department and whether to repave the parking lot behind City Hall. Cal knew he had no reason to stay for those topics. He picked up his presentation materials and said his goodbyes as the meeting was being called back to order.

By the time Cal had carried his gear to the atrium outside the council chambers the crowd that had flooded out at the conclusion of the Annex-Midco presentation had vanished. Cal wished that Roxie could have been waiting for him to tell how she thought he did. He would tell her all about it later.

He spied Jennifer Davis off the side being interviewed by the reporter from the local newspaper. Wes Ingram stood to the side. Cal guessed that she was doing some repair work over her botched attempt to disrupt the presentation.

A TV crew was packing up a little bit further down the hall. Cal saw the anchor glance at him and then look away in an instant. Cal spotted Jennifer Davis again and she and Wes were on their way out the door. He saw the reporter through the glass doors, already scurrying down the sidewalk.

“I see that Jack Ross has the Press in his hip pocket,” Cal told himself. “When I was in Jack’s ‘in-crowd’ the reporters were chasing me around all the time.”

Cal looked at his watch.

“Only nine-fifteen.”

He felt his stomach growling; he’d skipped dinner so he could change clothes and do some last-minute prep for his presentation.