Results of last night's village meeting

I read in the local paper recently that there was an opening on the village trustees council. So, I went to last night's meeting to express my interest in filling the position. The person filling the vacancy would have a lot to do with local ordinances, which I figured was up my alley, being a lawyer. But, when I got to the meeting, the first order of business was swearing in someone else for the job. That was surprising since there didn't seem to be any period during which others could be considered, and I later heard that vacancies are usually open for a few months. Without being insulting, I do think I'd do a much better job. At any rate, I heard there's a fairly high turnover rate on the board, so I suppose I'll bide my time for now.

The meeting was strange in some ways. Apparently our town leaders don't know if we have a book of ordinances somewhere, or what the ordinances even are. I don't understand how they can enforce rules, if they don't know where they are, let alone no one in town has access to them either. I also heard that our water department may be in some hot water with the EPA for some unknown violations, but I have no specifics. I can say they're woefully inefficient at announcing and ceasing boil orders.

All in all, apart from not getting the position I wanted, it was a nice opportunity to meet some more people in town. (There's only 350 or so people here, so I met about 2% of the town last night).