Sunday, December 11, 2005
Lurking Turkeys and Immigrant Pursuits
LURKING TURKEYS
First, Mayor Pro Tem Eric Bever's latest commentary in the Daily Pilot on December 8th continues to perpetuate the myth that Katrina Foley did something wrong with the distribution of the discretionary funds. She did not. Bever and his cronies, like Paul Bunney, just keep shaking this issue like pups with an old sock. Sometimes it makes you just want to swat them with a folded newspaper and say, "No! Bad Dog!" This has been a dead issue for weeks, yet they refuse to let it go - much to their discredit.
Bever has me feeling a lot like Dr. Frankenstein these days. When he stepped aside more than two years ago so Mike Scheafer could be appointed to the City Council I wrote that it was a "selfless act of citizenship", and speculated that perhaps the wrong person had stepped aside. With the benefit of hindsight, I readily admit that I was wrong - boy, was I wrong! Unlike Scheafer, whose lifetime of leadership and public service in this community is a benchmark for which others might strive, Bever has proven to be an erratic councilman, at best. His cavalier disregard for the rules of conduct as a councilman - most recently reflected in his commentary, as he made light of the now-infamous note passing incident - have revealed him as a man not to be trusted. The willingness with which he and his pal, Mayor Allan Mansoor, so deftly ignore the will of the people should make every single resident of this community uncomfortable. When I praised Bever I thought "what I saw was what I got". I didn't see the real Eric Bever lurking below the surface until after he was appointed to the Planning Commission and his true self began to emerge. Columnist Jim deBoom was right to name him as a recipient of his Turkey of the Year award. I find myself thinking that the turkey is much too majestic a bird to be compared to Bever. Perhaps the now-extinct Dodo is a more appropriate characterization.
IMMIGRANT PURSUITS
I stayed up and watched the City Council meeting to the bitter end last Tuesday (Wednesday morning, actually). I heard every word spoken by the parties involved in the discussion of Mansoor's immigration enforcement scheme. I saw rational discussions expressed by people on both sides of the argument. I also saw wild-eyed fanatics representing each side, too, including the young man who professed Native American status who cussed out our young mayor not once, but twice, before he was escorted out of the auditorium. I heard people representing so many acronyms - LULAC, MALDEF, OCCCO and ACLU - that I felt like I was observing a Scrabble tournament.
I saw former mayor Gary Monahan, like Mighty Mouse, come flying in to rescue what was clearly an incendiary situation. I could almost hear him sing, "Here I am, to save the day!" Although, as Councilwoman Katrina Foley suggested, this issue was more appropriately a subject for a study session at which members of the Sheriff's Department, Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau, local law enforcement and activists representing the Latino community and others could present viewpoints before formal consideration by the council, we were long past that point at the council meeting. Monahan's solution, which actually smacked of statesmanship, seemed to toss water on the embers of discontent for the time being. Since his plan piggybacks the Orange County Sheriff's much-debated and negotiated plan - still unfinished at this writing - and he used a two month-old draft of the plan as talking points, there may be time for city leaders to mend some fences smashed by our young mayor before it is implemented. It will also provide some time for some of the very important, yet unanswered, questions to be resolved. Since more than 70% of the speakers that night and early morning opposed both Mansoor's and Monahan's plans, there is obviously much work to be done.
This weekend, on Saturday, our young jailer/mayor presented us with another rambling discourse describing his reasons for bringing up this whole subject in the form of yet another commentary in the Daily Pilot. He attempted to convince the readers of the wisdom and purity of his intentions. I suspect he only had marginal success.
In my humble opinion, Mansoor tossed this proposal out for consideration without sufficient preparation. This is precisely the kind of hot-button issue that should have been discussed first during a study session, as recommended by Foley. This is yet another perfect example of how Mansoor and his pals plan to run this city. They take an issue, make up their minds about it before consultation with the public, then attempt to ram it down our throats. This happened with the WROC report earlier this year, and again when the Job Center closure was first proposed and, then again, when they blind-sided the members of the Human Relations Committee when they disbanded it without so much as a thank you to the volunteers who had served this city. They discourage public participation, apparently because they think they and their disciples know what's best for this city. How arrogant!
So, Mansoor, Bever and their cadre of angry, narrowly focused buddies continue their blizzard of rhetoric via the local newspapers, hoping to influence people beyond their inner circle to hop aboard their buckboard to the past, when racism was a core element of life in parts of this country. I wouldn't be surprised to see Jim Gilchrist trotted out to add venom to Mansoor's discourse any time now.
We have learned, once again, that you can't blink or turn your back on the ruling troika in this city for one minute. It might be your rights trampled the next time.
11:38 pm pst
First, Mayor Pro Tem Eric Bever's latest commentary in the Daily Pilot on December 8th continues to perpetuate the myth that Katrina Foley did something wrong with the distribution of the discretionary funds. She did not. Bever and his cronies, like Paul Bunney, just keep shaking this issue like pups with an old sock. Sometimes it makes you just want to swat them with a folded newspaper and say, "No! Bad Dog!" This has been a dead issue for weeks, yet they refuse to let it go - much to their discredit.
Bever has me feeling a lot like Dr. Frankenstein these days. When he stepped aside more than two years ago so Mike Scheafer could be appointed to the City Council I wrote that it was a "selfless act of citizenship", and speculated that perhaps the wrong person had stepped aside. With the benefit of hindsight, I readily admit that I was wrong - boy, was I wrong! Unlike Scheafer, whose lifetime of leadership and public service in this community is a benchmark for which others might strive, Bever has proven to be an erratic councilman, at best. His cavalier disregard for the rules of conduct as a councilman - most recently reflected in his commentary, as he made light of the now-infamous note passing incident - have revealed him as a man not to be trusted. The willingness with which he and his pal, Mayor Allan Mansoor, so deftly ignore the will of the people should make every single resident of this community uncomfortable. When I praised Bever I thought "what I saw was what I got". I didn't see the real Eric Bever lurking below the surface until after he was appointed to the Planning Commission and his true self began to emerge. Columnist Jim deBoom was right to name him as a recipient of his Turkey of the Year award. I find myself thinking that the turkey is much too majestic a bird to be compared to Bever. Perhaps the now-extinct Dodo is a more appropriate characterization.
IMMIGRANT PURSUITS
I stayed up and watched the City Council meeting to the bitter end last Tuesday (Wednesday morning, actually). I heard every word spoken by the parties involved in the discussion of Mansoor's immigration enforcement scheme. I saw rational discussions expressed by people on both sides of the argument. I also saw wild-eyed fanatics representing each side, too, including the young man who professed Native American status who cussed out our young mayor not once, but twice, before he was escorted out of the auditorium. I heard people representing so many acronyms - LULAC, MALDEF, OCCCO and ACLU - that I felt like I was observing a Scrabble tournament.
I saw former mayor Gary Monahan, like Mighty Mouse, come flying in to rescue what was clearly an incendiary situation. I could almost hear him sing, "Here I am, to save the day!" Although, as Councilwoman Katrina Foley suggested, this issue was more appropriately a subject for a study session at which members of the Sheriff's Department, Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau, local law enforcement and activists representing the Latino community and others could present viewpoints before formal consideration by the council, we were long past that point at the council meeting. Monahan's solution, which actually smacked of statesmanship, seemed to toss water on the embers of discontent for the time being. Since his plan piggybacks the Orange County Sheriff's much-debated and negotiated plan - still unfinished at this writing - and he used a two month-old draft of the plan as talking points, there may be time for city leaders to mend some fences smashed by our young mayor before it is implemented. It will also provide some time for some of the very important, yet unanswered, questions to be resolved. Since more than 70% of the speakers that night and early morning opposed both Mansoor's and Monahan's plans, there is obviously much work to be done.
This weekend, on Saturday, our young jailer/mayor presented us with another rambling discourse describing his reasons for bringing up this whole subject in the form of yet another commentary in the Daily Pilot. He attempted to convince the readers of the wisdom and purity of his intentions. I suspect he only had marginal success.
In my humble opinion, Mansoor tossed this proposal out for consideration without sufficient preparation. This is precisely the kind of hot-button issue that should have been discussed first during a study session, as recommended by Foley. This is yet another perfect example of how Mansoor and his pals plan to run this city. They take an issue, make up their minds about it before consultation with the public, then attempt to ram it down our throats. This happened with the WROC report earlier this year, and again when the Job Center closure was first proposed and, then again, when they blind-sided the members of the Human Relations Committee when they disbanded it without so much as a thank you to the volunteers who had served this city. They discourage public participation, apparently because they think they and their disciples know what's best for this city. How arrogant!
So, Mansoor, Bever and their cadre of angry, narrowly focused buddies continue their blizzard of rhetoric via the local newspapers, hoping to influence people beyond their inner circle to hop aboard their buckboard to the past, when racism was a core element of life in parts of this country. I wouldn't be surprised to see Jim Gilchrist trotted out to add venom to Mansoor's discourse any time now.
We have learned, once again, that you can't blink or turn your back on the ruling troika in this city for one minute. It might be your rights trampled the next time.
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