At the beginning of Chapter Nine Chief Brody is summoned to a meeting of the Board of Selectmen and makes his way to Amity Town Hall on Main Street. The building is a much more impressive piece of architecture than the cramped and cluttered council chambers of the movie: "The rooms inside the town hall were as preposterously grandiose as the exterior. They were huge and high-ceilinged, each with its own elaborate chandelier." This sounds more like a room in which James Bond might be briefed before going out on a mission. Indeed, like Bond, Brody has time for some casual chatter with the "wholesome pretty" secretary before being ushered into the Mayor's office.
As soon as he walks in the room, Brody knows that the deck is stacked against him. The four selectmen are just that: men selected for the task of supporting Larry Vaughn. Hooper, standing apart from the group and looking out to sea, is on hand to offer expert advice on water temperature. The single item on the meeting's agenda is whether or not it is safe to open the beaches. The text is punctuated with the language of the casino and the racetack ("it would be a gamble ... hoping for a continuing draw ... a calculated risk ... worth taking ... playing the odds ... I'm betting it won't").
Brody seems more concerned about the apportion of responsibility ("Who's taking the blame this time?") than worrying about the potential victims of fresh attacks. Nevertheless, he is at least prepared to make a stand. Just as he's drawn his line in the sand ("You can have my job anytime you want it.") an urgent phone call from Harry Meadows calls him out of the room. In a moment of Nixonite eavesdropping the mayor listens in on his office extension as the newspaperman outlines Amity's shady realty deals until - unable to handle the truth - he shrieks down the phone, "You're a goddamned liar, Meadows!" The meeting breaks up, and Brody and Vaughn get into a huddle to broker a deal that will see the beaches open but patrolled.
By the time this scene reached the screen it had - like the discovery of Ben Gardner's abandoned boat - gone through a number of significant changes. Relocated from the opulent interior of the town hall to a bluff overlooking the ocean, Brody and Hooper - speaking as one in carefully choreographed overlapping dialogue - try to make Vaughn see what is literally before his eyes (the threat of the shark represented on the billboard). With a simple piece of misdirection ("But you don't have the tooth.") and a sly dig at his opponent's own ambitions ("Love to prove that, wouldn't you? Get your name in the National Geographic.") the mayor shows his political chops and wins the debate.
