where do they find all these loonies?

Unfortunately, they're everywhere.

In any small town government you'll find that half the people there are intelligent people with good intentions. They frequently last only as long as they aren't frustrated by the nuts with too much time on their hands who essentially enter government to get enough power to pursue their own agenda, which is occasionally motivated even by personal grudges.

Being in any level of government is an exercise in frustration more than anything. I've tried it, for no pay, running for an open seat on a local board with no challenger. The board I ended up on had a chairperson who was rankled because she couldn't open every board meeting with everyone holding hands in prayer, a vice chairperson who announced to everyone (on cable access TV no less) that she was such a good customer at Victoria's Secret that she felt they would want to support our local fundraising efforts, and one older lady who felt that the town should never have changed from the way it was in the 60s, so no new stoplights at the intersection where a mother and daughter were killed being T-boned by another car in the dark rain.

I lasted 6 years.