From Email InBox: Appointment Debate

Gramps:

Did Council Members Lee Ann Garcia and Darcy McNaboe indicate they received email input on an open agenda item that influenced their decision? Will this email be in the public record of the minutes? Clearly the public that came to the meetings on 2 occasions supported appointment of Sylvia Robles and for some reason they were clearly opposed to that suggestion and so much as said by their comments that IF Robles applied for the appointment She would not get either of their votes regardless of how much public support was at the City Council Meeting or the 1300 votes she received in the last election. There is some sort of false logic that in a 2 way race people only have 2 choices. The voters could have Not voted for Sylvia Robles and that would have left a larger majority for McNaboe. The vote was a near split perhaps it would be most representative if Robles and McNaboe serve on the same council as counter weights to each other.

The apparent rejection of the voter input, and the input of the public that showed up to not one but two public city council meetings is telling. There was no blockage of other people from participation in the public discussion of the issue.

Council business starts at 6:00 and if parties are interested in the agenda they stay till the close of the meeting. That is what is required. It would be helpful if the agenda is only on city business and not full of presentations and awards when there are business issues that are time consuming. There should be a full questioning or interview of all applicants not limited to time. There is a thing called coffee if you get sleepy. There is a fitness requirement to serve on a City Council and yes some times that requires a long meeting, and a late night.

Gramps Answers:

Yes, they did mention being influenced by email, and they did not provide copies for the public record to the clerk at the time of the meeting. This was an open Agenda Item so there may be justification for the inclusion of the emails on that topic to be included.

In some ways, the only decision we got out of the City Council was that there will not be a costly election. They will try to appoint a council member but Garcia and McNaboe have all ready stated a belief that there is no person in all of Grand Terrace that would get 3 of the 4 of them to vote for them. They eliminated the option to have a ranking that would kind of let an applicant float to the surface using a statistical model like a decision matrix, but no. The appointment process as designed by Garcia and McNaboe is intended to result in a 2/2 split and an open seat for 2 years. Each applicant will know in public who is thumbs up or down on them.

What will be interesting will be how many issues are not decided during that 2 year period because of a 2/2 vote.