ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

OK Rae, thank you for asking.
Does the city council like to read? A very good background source and barometer of community thoughts can be found by clicking the Ojai Chain Store Issue Resource Page
link at the top of the page
of Ojai Post.

Why would anyone write to Rae asking about Joe's, Sue's, Carol's or Steve's positions? What is going on here?

Rae says she cannot speak for other council members and then contradicts herself by saying that she is CERTAIN they would prefer to hear from their constituents.

In other words, she is speaking for them. Did the other council members and Rae speak about this issue of how the public should be communicating to them? If so, what about the Brown Act which gives guidelines about council members discussing things outside a public forum?

Here comes the policy which may be coming from Rae or from Rae + unnamed council members. "I suggest writing...directly with your concerns and interests. Doing so ensures your communications become a matter of public record."

What? My email to Rae, if I should write one, is a private communication which does not become a public record.

The way to make a public record is to post here on the Post, not send a private email or letter, or have a telephone conversation or face to face meeting.

A public record is what the council avoids like the plague. In other words, what Rae suggests subverts the public record. Whether this is a planned strategy on her part, or by her as point person for others, or not, the effect would be the opposite of her stated desires for a public record.

This idea of private communication to replace public discussion fits in with the overall behavior of the council to avoid engaging in public discourse, and to disempower members of the public who disagree with their secrecy agenda.

I would love to talk to Rae or any other member of the council, and I have been here. But I'm not going to do as Rae suggests. It's a waste of energy and time. I will talk to the council, Mr. Widders and Mr. Kersnar here in the open, not in the secrecy of private back rooms.

Let this be my open invitation to anyone to discuss anything with me here on the Post. I am not an author so I cannot just start a new thread. I respond to what other authors start.

Rae is also not an author so Tyler has posted this for her. If I want something started as a new thread, should I do as Rae does and ask Tyler to do it for me?

When I leave this thread I am going to revisit some of the other ones that concern myself, Rae and the council to see it Rae or any other council member has engaged in the type of public conversation I am advocating for. If so, I may have to qualify some of my remarks about council members avoiding public discourse.

For as long as anyone can probably remember, the council hid behind the Brown Act, saying they could not respond to the public at council meetings. This is a false interpretation of the Brown Act which conveniently allowed them to avoid conversation with the public, which I have brought to their attention more than once. There has been no rebuttal on their part because they know the truth. Believe me, if I was in error, I would have long ago heard about it.

We are making progress toward real conversation but it is slow.

Rae, I want to thank you for joining in. I hope you will stay awhile.

I have some public questions for you that I hope you could help clarify or inform.

First, it seems like the ballot initiatives that were submitted last August laid out a pretty reasonable road map for what many people would like to see the council focusing on. They are on the Post at:

http://www.ojaipost.com/2006/10/the_ojai_ballot_initiatives.shtml

Do you agree with the proposals in the initiatives? Are there any you disagree with? What can citizens do to help you get the kinds of protections described in the initiatives in place?

Second, as a number of people have pointed out on the Post, it seems like those initiatives really were a lost opportunity, and the result of what the city did in response includes the fact that we now have this Subway here in town, instead of an ordinance like the initiatives called for. The ACLU called the city’s lawsuit a SLAPP. The judge threw it out of court. Many people are disturbed by the idea that our city is violating the rights of citizens and filing a lawsuit like this. And there must be a better use for the money this is costing.

Yet, you along with your colleagues voted to continue supporting the lawsuit, and the city is now cross-appealing the judge’s ruling and facing off against the ACLU.

Not to be too blunt, but: what are you doing? I know you cannot speak for your colleagues, but why do you support the lawsuit? Why couldn’t the city have simply processed the initiatives? What would have happened if the city attorney had simply returned the ballot title and summary, instead of filing a lawsuit?

It just doesn’t seem to make sense, and it really seems like we as a city could be much further along in addressing chains and everything else if instead of filing this lawsuit, the city had processed the initiatives. Why do you think the city’s lawsuit was the right thing to do? Why do you think it still is the right thing to do?

Thanks in advance for helping us understand this issue.

Dear Dennis -

regarding your comment: Rae is also not an author so Tyler has posted this for her. If I want something started as a new thread, should I do as Rae does and ask Tyler to do it for me?

(1) Rae Hanstad sent out an open letter to an undisclosed number of people in the community - I was one of the mass recipients. I felt that it was important to distribute that to the Post's readership. There was no additional message requesting that I post it.

(2) Perhaps I am misinterpreting your words, but you sound slighted that you aren't setting an agenda of sorts on the Post. Might I offer the following, which I have either requested from you or posted on your behalf:

Candidate Vision Statement: Dennis Leary
http://www.ojaipost.com/2006/10/candidate_vision_statement_den.shtml

Ojai Ballot Initiatives: Guest Editorial & Rebuttal from Dennis Leary
http://www.ojaipost.com/2006/10/ojai_ballot_initiatives_guest_1.shtml

Dennis Leary: Letter To The Editor
http://www.ojaipost.com/2006/10/dennis_leary_letter_to_the_edi.shtml

plus there are at least 74 additional pages on The Ojai Post where you have participated and your message has been heard.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Awww.ojaipost.com+dennis+leary

On a separate note, I found it very interesting that communication via email to official councilmember email addresses is part of the public record. In an email reply to all five city councilmembers and the city clerk, I have requested clarification and confirmation - I don't yet have a reply. If possible, I'd like to obtain email correspondence to the city on a regular basis and find a home for it on The Ojai Post.

Anonymous 12:26 pm had some very good questions. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any answers from Rae or anyone else on the council. Que the crickets.

I know that there is some hard feelings from the last go around-the initiative and all that is related to it. I myself have some strong feelings about the last council as a whole, and to the individual.

But must every time Rae comes over to the post that she be attacked and vilified or Tyler accused of some thing less than savory in application of postings for one that's not an author?

I understand the frustration for I possess a great deal of it. But discourse will never take place when one reaches out to have their hand smashed with a barrage of digital sledgehammers. You may question her motives but I would argue to move a bit closer to the conversation, a bit further from suspicion.

Thank you, Tyler, for your comments.

I withdraw my suggestion that Rae may have asked you to post her request regarding emails to council members. I understand now that she sent out an open letter, and it was your choice to post it.

I thank you, too, for posting so much of my writing. I am very grateful for the Ojai Post. It is a blessing and may turn out to be the main ingredient in my personal agenda of saving Ojai.

Despite all this, I confess to being slighted by you. You have never invited me to be an author. I can understand why you would not, because I would hijack the Post, as Lisa fears, and turn it into an Ojai political blogging site.

Dana and Alyeska,

You appear to be concerned for Rae and Tyler. I am too. They are valuable members of our community. If you read my posts carefully, you will hopefully see that I converse with them with respect and civility, while speaking my own truth which sometime involves them.

A public position such as Rae's and Tyler's is quite difficult. People come at them from all angles. However, they chose to put themselves in the public eye, and I trust they have the maturity to handle the pressures. Rae is the only council person who so far has the courage to enter this particular Post arena. The other council members are probably watching her and wondering what would happen to them if they entered the fray. She has to tread carefully and watch every word she says because this is a public domain. The same with Tyler, even more so, because he is running a public and private business which will sink or swim on the basis of its integrity.

As for me, I can say pretty much what I want to because I don't have much to lose. Sue could get voted out and Tyler could see the Post suffer, but me, I'm pretty free. I depend on the community to set some limits on my discourse and to provide the context in which it takes place but other than that I can play the role of village idiot, fringe element crackpot and town fool with some ease.

Well said Dennis. I do read most of your posts and you have been most eloquent in some of your writings and I do look forward to reading them. Allot of times I agree with you, but not always, and when they get long I tire. You have read comments concerning there lengths. I can get long as well, well, not as long as, well, as you. I believe more is said with less-take it for what it's worth.

As for Rae and Tyler: Rae for what ever her positions are has shown courage to be here. I don't know if I have such courage. Tyler has provided a Village Forum that Ojai has never had before. It has become, this is my thinking, the most important, relevant vehicle to further Ojai's conversation of prevailing concerns, to inform and the impetus to move on them. The examples abound.

This enterprise's success's was not by accident. Tyler's "integrity", that we count on, is what brought it forward from an idea to an event, one that I dearly appreciate.

Thanks for your reply Dennis.

Thanks, Dennis and Dana. Your thoughts are all much appreciated. And may this site never be about me, but rather about us, and our community.

If I may be coy, wait 'til you see what I have up my sleeve next... :)