“Well, let’s just pray it’s enough to make the rest of them waffle.”
~*~
The courthouse was packed. People were wedged into the wooden benches in the public seating on the main level and up in the gallery. More stood two and three deep around the edges. The coalition was a notable presence, but there were an equal number of faces Norah didn’t recognize. Almost all of them were either zoned out or confused.
At the front of the courtroom, Dr. Elissa Brosnan, professor of economics from the University of Mississippi, was engaged in active debate with Arnold Chiles, the representative from the firm who’d produced the original economic impact study. From a purely academic standpoint, Dr. Brosnan was winning. But the entire discussion was taking place at a level of technicality that the vast majority of those present couldn’t possibly follow. That wasn’t exactly confidence inspiring.
“Are you understanding this?” Miranda whispered.
“Most of it, but I’ve been up to my eyeballs in this stuff for weeks now.”
The Council members were tired. Norah could see it in their postures, read it in their faces. This discussion was closing in on an hour long, and that after almost an hour spent rehashing the issue of infrastructure upgrade that would be required. An upgrade that GrandGoods vowed to foot the bill for. Damn it.
They were being far too conciliatory. All smiles, all agreement. Bill Sutto and Vick Burgess were all up in each others’ pockets. They even seemed buddy-buddy with Arnold Chiles, which made Norah wonder if there was a connection between them that made Chiles less than an unbiased party. If they could prove it, would it be enough to call into question the results of the study? Or would it just be considered the delay tactic it was intended to be?
“Thank you, Dr. Brosnan, for that…in-depth opinion. You’ve given us plenty to consider.” As the professor took her seat, Sandra continued, “Are there additional concerns anyone wishes to raise?”
Norah knew Cam had been hanging on to the traffic flow issue, but before he could speak, Bill Sutto asked for the floor.
“Thank you, Madam Mayor. I know that there is a great deal of concern about how GrandGoods would impact Wishful. You are a small town with considerable charm, and you don’t want to lose that. We absolutely respect and appreciate your position. While it’s true that our store would bring in several thousand more vehicles locally per day, there are means of mitigating the impact of that traffic burden so that the character of Wishful remains intact. We took the liberty of having a traffic engineer conduct a study of the existing traffic flow and make recommendations for the best means of minimizing the intrusion into the community.” Sutto moved out from behind his table and began to pass out packets to the City Council members.
Shit. By bringing up the issue first, Sutto reinforced the idea that they had the community’s best interests at heart.
“We can’t trust anything they’ve paid for,” Norah hissed. “They’ll have professionals in their pocket to make sure they come across as lily white and innocent.”
“Surely the Council won’t just swallow it whole,” Tyler murmured.
Cam was on it. “Motion to adjourn to allow sufficient time for the Council to review the report.”
“Why?” Connie Lockwood demanded. “So you can waste more tax payer dollars trying to find someone to give the opinion you want?”
The audience burst into a flurry of exclamations that had Sandra pounding her gavel for order. Though Norah could see the temper on Cam’s face, he held it together, not snapping back at Connie.
“What is her problem?” Miranda muttered.
“She’s voting with her wallet,” Tyler said.
Dr. Brosnan lifted her hand. “To be clear, I’m here on my own. I’m not being paid.”
“There has been a motion to adjourn for the City Council to review the traffic engineer’s report,” Sandra said.
No one seconded the motion.
“We all know how we’re going to vote,” Hank said. “Unless there’s some other evidence we need to consider—legitimate evidence, not stalling tactics—motion to proceed to vote.”
“Second,” Connie said, impatient to be done with the proceedings.
Sandra waited, eyes scanning the crowd for any further objections. A muscle in her jaw jumped, the same way Cam’s did when he was frustrated. Norah wracked her brain, trying to think of something else to say, something else to bring up. But the coalition’s efforts were exhausted. She met Cam’s eyes across the room as his mother reluctantly said, “Motion to vote on the special use permit for the proposed parcel of land is approved.”
This was it. The moment they’d been working toward for weeks, pulling out all the stops to sway public opinion and that of the rest of the Council. Norah reached out and grabbed Miranda’s and Tyler’s hands.
On the front row of the audience, Molly Montgomery stood. “Motion for roll call vote.”
“Seconded,” Cam said.
“Motion for roll call vote approved.”
They would know, without question, who stood where. Norah held her breath as Sandra started.