Comcast can be a pain to deal with sometimes; I had to call and fight with them to remove a cable box/remote from my bill that I had turned in three months ago.
Shows you how "mature" people can still crack up at stupid stuff. I'll bet it wasn't any "fart machine" but a council member who decided Taco Bell would be the ideal pre-meeting lunch.
And yes, the tone of the article is a bit off-putting and assumes a lot of bigotry that may or may not be present.