McK News Gets Town Riled Up - If You're Not Part of the Solution ...

One of my favorite sayings - "Trinidad is a small Town with big personalities and even bigger opinions." Another one is from the last Council meeting - "Keep It Simple Stupid" (KISS).

I hear you.

Really Simple Solution:
Councilmembers who were involved in these email discussions, between a majority of the Council, should accept that what they did was poor judgement at best, apologize to our Townspeople for breaking their trust, and commit to not do it again. Dun.

McK News Gets Town Riled Up

Story: Uproar Over Trinidad Councilman's Blog. People are definitely reading the local paper and their Blog. Mostly, I think it was a fair article. As far as violations of trust go - that is what this is all about. But it's not about my violating the 4 individual Councilmember's trust to keep this away from the public. The violation of our Townspeople's trust by the Council having discussions like these, and apparently making decisions out of public scrutiny, is what's important here.

It should be clarified that these emails were not "private" nor should they have been. When a majority of the Council is communicating about subject matter jurisdiction items, like these, those discussions should be public and decisions to act should be made in and with the public's interest in mind - not just the interest of the individual Councilmembers who are participating. These emails were circulated within a majority of the Council at the time, and with Staff, and they were sent to me by Councilmembers.

If You're Not Part of the Solution ...
Before you get lost in He Said/She Said Land, I suggest you see my Report: Encouraging Controversy and Eroding Trust? - Previous Council's Email "Discussions" (link) for background, or at least read the emails sent to me and why I posted them (link). Then you'll make a more informed choice when you choose to be part of the solution, or part of continuing the problem. Getting informed, from the emails themselves, will help you avoid being trapped in the sometimes side-show like appearance of our town's politics.

Related Posts:
Report: Encouraging Controversy and Eroding Trust? - Previous Council's Email "Discussions"
References:
McK Press Blog & Story: Uproar Over Trinidad Councilman's Blog

Inauguration-I Don't Want to Miss a Thing Post

Cool post picture - click it for a larger view at Bill's blog. He found it from a Guy Kawasaki Tweet referencing this satellite image of the crowd at last week's inauguration.

Reference:
See Bill Geist's I Don't Want to Miss a Thing Post.

With Friends Like These ... Council Rants

"If you stare at this for more than 10 seconds,
your head will explode."

Wish we had video tape of our Council Meetings. I could submit one of last night's performances to the "Gadfly Hall of Fame"

[note: all underlined text in this post is a link to an external Web page]

As a favor to a mutual friend of Kim and I think Pat's, I suspended this post. I agree that they were getting all lost in their emotions and the focus was muddled in all sorts of amusing accusations. My attempt to jokingly point out these women's "little-girl-like" behavior in the audience that night was just that. They were completely behaved during the following meeting, and except for Pat, I think this is behind us. Stan is responsible for keeping order, and he did a fine job. The post is back up to now to answer their incorrect criticisms and the Press article. -MM2/25


I modified this post because someone, whose respect I value completely, told me I went too far with calling these women the Bobbsey Twin "Girls". This post is about Kim and Pat's child-like behavior (snickering, gesturing and interrupting) in the audience of the City Council meeting, and Pat's seemingly uncontrolled and unchecked rant. MM1/16

Even the best intentioned person can seem rude, foolish, or worse with such immature behavior (including me of course). That's hoping that she (Pat) had good intentions with her "rant" though. If Pat's intention was to help me learn something, or see that my words could have been expressed in a less hurtful way, I suppose she was successful. But at what an unnecessarily, extravagant waste of my personal respect for her. If her intention was to hurt or shame me, she failed totally. I'm guessing by her finger pointing and finger wagging, and her seemingly enraged, about-to-pop-a-carotid-artery facial expressions, that she was attempting the latter. Again, she failed, miserably. She did give me lots to blog about though (lol).

I did not leverage the responsibility for allowing their behavior to continue unchecked during our meeting, but I will now. That responsibility rests with our Mayor, Stan. He is chair of our meetings. He is responsible for keeping order in the audience as well as monitoring and helping speakers with their sometimes seemingly inappropriate, some may even consider them abusive, comments. Our Mayor is Kim's husband and he is a good man. I have no doubt he will improve his leadership with each meetings experience. I hope he, like I'm told his predecessor did, will find a way to help Kim conduct herself more appropriately in future meetings, and help Pat with her comments, if she starts "crossing the line" -MM 1/21

Ok, Back to Work now ...

Related Posts:
Trinidad Top 10 - Where Do We Go From Here?
Encouraging Controversy and Eroding Trust? - Previous Council's Email "Discussions"
Rant: Just Shoot Me - Our Mayor Election Process
Rant: News in a Small Town - Flipflopping ... Openly, Proudly

Call of the Regular City Council Metting

From Gabe:

Posted: Friday, January 09, 2009

NOTICE AND CALL OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE
TRINIDAD CITY COUNCIL

The Trinidad City Council will hold its first monthly meeting on
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2009 at 7:00 PM
In the Town Hall at 409 Trinity Street
Note: Council Members need to meet at 6:00 PM for the Closed Session

I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
III. CLOSED SESSION: Two (2) Items
1. Personnel Issue: Section 54957(b), City Manager
2. Real Property Negotiations: Section 54956.8, Lease/Sale of City Property
IV. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
V. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
• December 10, 2008
VI. COUNCIL MEMBER REPORTS
VII. ORAL STAFF REPORTS
• City Manager
• Specific Department Reports
VIII. ITEMS FROM THE FLOOR
(Three (3) minute limit per Speaker unless Council approves request for extended time.)
IX. CONSENT AGENDA
1. Staff Activities Report through December, 2008
2. Financial Status Reports for October and November, 2008
3. Resolution 2009-01 Accepting an Easement from the North Coast Land Trust
4. Resolution 2009-02 Amending the City of Trinidad Personnel Rules and Procedures
5. Resolution 2009-03 Authorizing the Destruction of Archived City Records
6. Progress Report on Amending the FY2009 Budget
X. DISCUSSION/ACTION AGENDA ITEMS
1. Appointments to the Trinidad Planning Commission
2. Selection of Council Member Representatives to Boards and Committees
3. Council Policy on Communications among Council Members/Staff
4. Discussion on Options for Trinidad Water Supply
5. Authorization to Proceed with Analysis of Membrane Treatment of Trinidad Water System
6. Discussion on Regulations for 215 Dispensaries in Trinidad
XI. COUNCIL or STAFF REQUESTS FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
XII. ADJOURNMENT

Reference:

Regular Council Meeting Agenda 01-14-09 .pdf

Suspected Parking Lot Burglars Arrested

News From Our City Manager:
Sean Garmire/The Times-Standard / Posted: 01/10/2009 01:19:41 AM PST


A California State Park ranger arrested three people suspected of burglarizing vehicles in the Trinidad area.

According to Greg Hall, a ranger with the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the alleged victim of an auto burglary stopped him while he was driving through Trinidad on Thursday, and reported that he had witnessed three people breaking into a vehicle in the College Cove parking lot.

Hall said the victim who reported the crime had allegedly witnessed the same three people -- two males and a female driving a 1980s white GMC pickup -- breaking into his own vehicle the day before. Authorities had been on the lookout for suspects matching that description since Tuesday.

The victim told Hall that after witnessing the burglary, he chased the three suspects northbound on Patrick's Point Drive. The man reported the suspects were driving too fast to follow, and he gave up the chase.

Hall issued a lookout for the suspect vehicle, and it was located after a short time by a ranger about 10 miles south of Crescent City.

According to Hall, Harley Hammers, 33, Shavonne Hammers, 31, and Jeffrey Brooks, 36, were arrested and booked into the Humboldt County jail on suspicion of possession of stolen property, burglary, possession of burglary tools and possession of marijuana.

Inside the vehicle were several items that had been reported stolen from a truck parked in the Trinidad parking lot. Hall said he believes the three had spent three days in Trinidad, and may have burglarized several vehicles.
The high number of auto burglaries on Trinidad's Scenic Drive and in nearby state park parking lots has been an ongoing issue for authorities. Hall said rangers are asking anyone who has had their vehicle burglarized in the Trinidad area within the last month to contact him at 845-5784.