Straight-backed, uniformed wait staff crisscrossed the floor of City Hall’s ballroom. With silver trays held aloft, they glided effortlessly through the crowd, their blank expressions cleverly masking the tedium of serving champagne and hors d'oeuvres to equally bored guests. Dozens of white-clothed tables adorned with elaborate arrangements of hydrangeas and magnolias gave refuge to the honored attendees who were either too tired or too disinterested to mingle with the men and women gathered in cliques throughout the room. From their position on a small raised platform, a string quartet provided a pleasant auditory backdrop to the chatter of voices, the dulcet tones swelling and falling like a warm summer breeze. It was the party event of the year, and for the mayor’s wife, the soirée was an opportunity to gain the enviable reputation of perfect hostess; for her guests, it was a grandiose display of autocratic superiority.…