“First of all,” Derrick said, “I’m not sure Vince is right about any of this. Just because we’re making payments to a bank, it doesn’t give that bank the right to tell us what to do. We’re the elected officials. We decide how the town’s money is spent. And, for the record, the finance director works for us. Vince doesn’t tell us what to do, we tell him what to do.”

“That’s right.” Roy nodded, considerably relieved. “That’s right.”

“We still have to be frugal, we still have to be careful, but we also have to do what’s best for the people of Montgomery. The fact is, revenues are up, and after all of the cuts we’ve made in the past few years, I’ll be damned if I’ll shortchange this town in order to feed the coffers of a damn bank.” He did his best Dana Carvey George Bush. “Not gonna do it.”

Roy smiled. “I’m with you.” He started typing on his phone as he backed into the hall. “See you on the field.”

Once again, the council chambers were filled with irate townspeople, all of them apparently here to protest The First People’s Bank. They waited not so patiently as the council approved the minutes of the last meeting and ran through old business, lining up to speak even before the floor was opened to public comments. Derrick glanced over at his fellow councilmembers. He’d spoken with none of them before the meeting other than Roy (and probably shouldn’t have even done that per open meeting laws), but he hoped they’d received the finance director’s email and had taken from it the same lesson he and Roy had. Lacy and Shelley could most likely be counted on, but Al was always a question mark.

Derrick announced the opening of public comments. Fred Winters, the barber, was first up, and if Derrick remembered right, he’d been one of the most militant speakers at the last meeting.

Why didn’t we just let Fred expand The Hair Force? He wouldn’t be here if we had.

The mayor shifted uneasily in his seat. Where had that come from? He was hoping to build public sentiment against First People’s, not defend the bank. Which meant that it was a good thing that Fred and the other business owners were riled up. If the finance director was right and the bank would be able to determine spending priorities and subvert the democratically elected council on a technicality, they’d need allies.