City Reports – Page 127

70% Voter Turn out in Contra Costa

heidi08 City Reports November 5, 2008

Interestingly Mark Ross rode out the night with about 2000 more votes than Janet Kennedy. Bradley Jackson looks like he picked up votes from her modest popularity, which when you consider what she paid for her campaign makes Ross’ victory look fairly beaver-colored. Worth A Dam handed him a huge media presence and he had the good sense to benefit from it, so I’ll be expecting my thankyou note any day in the mail. You can check other results here.

MARK ROSS (I) 8,656

BRADLEY JACKSON 4,468

MICHAEL ALFORD 2,141

JANET HAROUTUNIAN KENNEDY (I) 6,398

Our crack team of incumbents will be wasting no time patting themselves on the back, and tonight a change to speaker rules is on the agenda. This will likely insure that everyone will be asleep by the time Menesini stops making the same point. Interestly, the council asked Mercy to investigate the speaker limits, but never had her look up the Brown Act Rules for public comment before closed sessions. Hmm, priorities.

Councilmember Lara DeLaney requested that the Council review the Council Policies and Procedures which were adopted in May of 2006. The Council specifically asked staff to research the time limits policy in which the public is allowed to speak.

While researching this issue staff observed that many other jurisdictions’ restrict time limits to three minutes per person, thus allowing more public participation which facilitates a more fair and efficient meeting. Removing the last sentence in Section “b” Public Comments, would achieve this purpose (see attachment, IV. MEETINGS).

Staff reviewed the agendas for all the cities in Contra Costa County, including the County’s and the Martinez Unified School District, and all agencies have three-minute limits for public comment, with the exception of City of Richmond who has a two-minute limit and the Cities of San Pablo and San Ramon who have a 5 minute time limit.

Alternatives:

A. Move the Public Comment section of the Agenda after the Consent Calendar or before Council Comments. This would allow those members of the public who wish to attend the meeting for a specific agenda item the opportunity to hear the item at a reasonable hour. Those wishing to speak under Public Comment can stay to do so. Below is a compilation of various processes adopted by other cities who only allow each individual to speak for three minutes:

Pretend

heidi08 Beaver News, City Reports November 3, 2008

Based on the Gazette’s failure to mention this photo that shows the $400,000 bank stabilization project was unnecessary, it is clear that we are supposed to pretend this massive lie doesn’t matter to the city that funded it. News headlines emphasize the ends justifying the means and everyone wants us to move forward into our new metalic destiny. The wall’s been built and the beavers are sort of okay, and the civic thing to do now is pretend that it was an investment in Martinez’ future, (or at least a downpayment on Martinez’ past). We are supposed to pretend that sworn testimony of imminent danger was unrelated to actual danger of any kind, and that this is the way things get done in small towns.

While we’re clapping our hands for Tinkerbell to come, the Gazette allows Mr. Parker to remind us that we should also pretend that this obscene amount of money was spent “because of the beavers” and that in addition to chewing through a 10 million dollar flood project, the beavers hungrily devoured Mark Ross’ finacial backing for re-election. After they chomped their way through concrete, our pretend beavers obviously set their teeth on the veracity and self-respect of the entire council. Will they stop at nothing?

The need for make-believe requires flexibility, credulity and in this case the dexterity to keep up with the speedy sucession of stories. First we were asked to believe that this was for the good of the town, and not for the benefit of one property owner. Then while some of us were still busy pretending the critical patient was Bertola’s wall, we were told by Ross that it was actually the bank near the elections building that was in danger. This was a little harder to pretend because there were all those pesky engineering reports contradicting this argument. So that make-believe didn’t last long.

Its primary function was to move us to the next mythology, which was pretending that this sheetpile was destined all along for that part of the creek and the city was merely keeping a promise. Keeping promises is important. Who can object to that? It is true that some work was intended for that bank section, and that it was ultimately left undone, but I highly doubt the plan was a block of sheetpile, intended to save a bank that was never in danger.

Never mind. We were asked to pretend that it was life-saving, then pretend that it was face-saving, and along the way pretend that the reasons for pretending hadn’t changed.

Finally, we are told two days before an election with two incumbents asking for our vote, to pretend that it didn’t matter.

While you’re working on your imaginations, you might try pretending that the siphoning of funds into a lumbering Redevopment Agency would be good for the city, and that a council who keeps its promise to one person by taking the money from thousands has your best interests at heart.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=DXY_8cJlGMc]

Our Friends at Cooper Crane

heidi08 City Reports, Uncategorized October 31, 2008

Thank you to Ricky, Gordy, Vinnie, Drew, George, John & Monica for your careful and responsible work on the sheet pile installation. We appreciated your caution, and bemused curiosity about us crazy beaver supporters. The shirts look great on you

When First we Practice to Deceive

heidi08 City Reports, featured November 7, 2010

ADDENDUM:

So the city must have issued an “Alls Well that Ends Well” press release, because in addition to the merry KCBS report that says as far as we know the beavers are fine (never mind mom’s eye injury or the fact that she hasn’t been seen since last Thursday) a major media outlet checked the blog and was interested in the photo and post. They followed up with Ross for comment, who said the photo changed nothing because it was the other bank that was of concern, not the Bertola’s wall.

The mind reels. The jaw drops.

Never mind that the Cal Engineering report specifically describes the “broadening gap” between the bank and the Bertola’s wall as the emergency change that justifies exemption from CEQA. Never mind that there is video available of him testifying as much at the Council meeting. (Go to 52:30)

Never mind two city attorneys marched into Superior Court and persuaded Hon. Zuniga that the Bertola’s wall separation from the bank could result in imminent collapse and cause a domino effect flooding for the entire downtown.

This is not about what’s true. It never has been.

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So Tuesday Jon spent a very interesting day at the Martinez Museum and Martinez History Site. He was looking for a particular photo printed in the “Images of America: Martinez” of the creek next to Bertola’s. The picture was taken nearly ten years ago, during the flood project, when the creek was “de-watered” and work was done in the area.

The photo clearly shows the same wall and solid concrete footing which our expert identified and the city denied. Note that if the wall had a concrete footing the threat of the sagging bank would be rendered meaningless. The wall existed before the bank, and is not dependent on the bank. This is why there were so many snickers on the bridge when the sheet pile hit concrete.

Looking at the photo the footing is obvious. The picture also shows the central crack in the firebrick above, which has been blamed on beaver damage. These photos were taken during the Clinton Era – way before beavers. At the museum they found a whole folder of creek photos, two of which show the area in question much more clearly. In conversation with our attorney and the fluvial geomorphologist involved, they both expressed that these photos could have changed the CEQA ruling.

One intrepid beaver friend saw Mark Ross with Skip Lisle Tuesday night enjoying a farewell dinner. She showed him the image and he reacted without surprise. “I’m aware of that photograph” was his response, along with the recognition that this could be used to blame him later.

I have no wish to blame him personally. This photo is an albatross I want hung around the necks of the entire council and director of public works. Each one knew there was no need for this action. They had the perfect rebuttal to any legal threat. They had options, and even if they feared for their election chances or worried about opposing their colleagues they could have privately “leaked” reference of these photos to Worth A Dam, allowing us to serve as the bad guy and stop the project in court.

Instead, they met in secret, voted in secret, omitted in secret, and lied in public. They spent nearly half a million of your tax-payer dollars on a Faustian contract that had nothing to do with public safety. Don’t be fooled by the spin that this is money from the Texaco settlement and therefore not depleting Martinez coffers. It was money we had, and now we don’t, and it was spent for nothing.

They knew it at the meeting. They knew it during apologetic phone calls to beaver supporters. They knew it in court. They knew it every minute they had city staff uselessly poking through the soil to find beaver tunnels.

They knew. Now we know too.

Mervyn Peake: The Mariner & the Dead Albatross, from The Ancient Mariner. Illustrated 1949

Ah ! well a-day! what evil looks

Had I from old and young !
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Packing up the Crane

heidi08 City Reports October 29, 2008

This morning saw the dregs of the project and the tying together of loose ends. The crane was disassembled, and the beaver-watch brigade officially retired. The gravel is being raked around, and cement will eventually be poured atop it. I’m thinking maybe we should stick in a quick time capsule. Maybe a list of all the misrepresentations and not-so-white lies that have been spread by the city to maneuver this project? No, there isn’t really that much room. Maybe something smaller.

A list of the number of times our city has told the truth.

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