"The old man didn’t ask the city government for compensation."

"Of course, under this state law, City Hall would normally have immunity. After all, road damage is a common occurrence. Even if the old man had sought compensation from City Hall, the law wouldn’t have supported him."

"However, the old man said he had filed a complaint with the city government."

"This means City Hall had ’actual notice.’"

"This means that City Hall knew there was a danger, knew someone could get hurt, but still chose not to repair it."

"Under these circumstances, if an accident were to occur, the city government would lose all its legal protections."

"An injured citizen could sue us, and the court would order us to pay for massive medical bills, lost wages, and even punitive damages."

"I understand."

Ethan’s mind raced. He immediately understood Leo’s true intention.

"Moretti can refuse to approve the road repair budget. That’s his right, a power granted to him by the municipal code to set the agenda."

"But he can’t refuse to pay compensation, because that’s a liability stipulated by state law."

"If the road isn’t repaired and someone gets hurt, that becomes a legal liability. The city government *must* pay that money."

"In the past, the reason those bureaucrats dared to ignore citizens’ complaints and the potholes in the streets was that they were betting the public didn’t know the law."

"And even if some citizens did, they’d bet those people didn’t have the energy or the money to fight a protracted lawsuit against the massive city government."

"But things are different now."

Ethan looked at Leo. "Now, there’s a mole inside the city government."

"A mole on the side of the people."

"We don’t need to beg Moretti to approve our revitalization plan."

Leo’s gaze turned sharp as a knife.

"We’ll break down the revitalization plan into countless repair notices ourselves."

"This fragmented approach to repairs certainly won’t be as comprehensive or systematic as ’Revitalization Plan Phase Two,’ and it’ll be much less efficient. But at the very least, it will allow us to bypass that damned impasse and let me start delivering on some of my campaign promises."

"We can package these thousands of minor repairs administratively. Slap a label on them like ’Revitalization Plan Phase Two: Preliminary Feasibility Study and Emergency Intervention.’"

"It’s a roundabout approach."

Hearing this, Ethan frowned.

He didn’t show the excitement Leo had anticipated. Instead, his expression was one of concern.

"Leo, your logic is legally sound, but in terms of administrative practice, there’s a huge loophole."

Ethan spoke quickly.

"Even if you send over tens of thousands of repair requests, all you’re doing is creating an administrative logjam."

"Your requests will never even make it to the City Council. Their first stop is the Bureau of Street Maintenance in the Department of Public Works."

"Faced with these requests, the Bureau of Street Maintenance just needs to stamp them ’Insufficient Budget’ and then pass the buck to the Finance Department or the City Council."

"In the end, it all comes back to that vicious cycle: no budget, no money, and you still have to go through the City Council’s budget approval process. Moretti can just bury these requests at the bottom of a pile of paperwork, and even if they sit there for a year, there’s nothing you can do about it."

Ethan stood up and began to pace anxiously.

"Besides, about that deterrence strategy you mentioned... citizens getting injured is a matter of probability."

"Moretti is a shrewd politician. He just needs to hire a group of actuaries to do some simple math. Even if a few lawsuits arise from collapsed road surfaces, the total compensation might only be a few hundred thousand, a million US dollars at most."

"Compared to approving your twenty-million-dollar revitalization plan, compared to letting you gain massive political prestige, he might genuinely prefer to let a few unlucky citizens get hurt and fight a few lawsuits."

"For him, losing money is a small matter; losing power is a major one. It’s a bet he can afford to make."

Faced with Ethan’s string of sharp rebuttals, Leo wasn’t flustered.

He just chuckled softly.

"Ethan, your analysis is spot on."

Leo held up a finger and wagged it in the air.

"But you’ve forgotten one thing."

"You’re looking at the City Council as a monolith, as if it’s Moretti’s personal kingdom."

"But the fact is, there are nine people on the City Council."

"Nine people who are only accountable to the voters in their own districts."

Leo’s gaze seemed to pierce through the air, as if he could see the council members in the building across the way, each with their own agenda.

"Moretti may be the council president, but he only has one vote."

"Everyone wants to get a piece of the budget pie, and everyone wants to bring benefits back to their district. They follow Moretti because he ensures they get their cut." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"But if the budget gets eaten up by massive payouts, and there are no more cuts to go around, will they still stand with Moretti?"

"What we need to do is make the problem big enough—big enough that their seemingly solid alliance begins to crumble from within."

Ethan frowned. "But the compensation would be a million at most over a year, and the lawsuits would take a year or two. How many citizens can afford to wait that long?"

"Exactly. So this is just the catalyst."

Leo said, "I never intended to use citizen compensation to threaten Moretti."

"The only thing that can threaten a big shot like Moretti is another big shot."