When First we Practice to Deceive

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