Brian Dennert here with another guest blogger. If you want to write about a local topic for this blog, send me an e-mail. I will post it regardless of your political background. It doesn't matter if you are liberal or conservative, as long as you are informative and entertaining.
With that being said, let me introduce this guest blogger with some qualifiers. I don't follow Thousand Oaks politics much. I don't know their city council and have not met any of them. I also have never met Cathy Carlson. She is not from the same political party as me. I doubt we agree on much. The opinions stated here are hers, not mine. If she makes any factual errors, or doesn't paint a full picture, leave your thoughts under comments.
Here is the unedited and unverified Cathy Carlson:
Cathy Carlson from TO here: Here's what is really happening behind the scenes at the Thousand Oaks City Council after the death of Councilman Ed Masry.
Despite complaints about election costs from 3 of the sitting council members, the truth is that it would NOT have cost $250K for a special election. Watch the tape from Dec 3 meeting that 50 of us attended when the Clerk said it might be about $175K for a special, and much less if it got put on in June or November. That $250K was a red herring to justify a rigged appointment rather than a fair election.
I was also one of the many "protest candidates" For City Council. People wanted an election, not a 3 Year appointment. The TO City Council met on Tuesday Dec 13th to appoint a replacement for Ed Masry on the Very evening of Masry's funeral!! Mayor Claudia Bill- De la Pena and others came in their black mourning Clothes directly from the service, cutting short the private reception that the family gave to honor Ed. The Council should NOT have met that same night to do their dirty politics when the man was not even cold in his grave. Masry instructed his son Louis to pass on his wish for an election, not an appointment. His last wishes were dishonored.
This will be the end of Andy Fox, Jacqui Irwin and Dennis Gillette. Even the radical local Democratic Club of the Conejo (Laura Winchester, Et al) scolded those DEMS on their front page this week. It had a cartoon of the Grinch grabbing at a Ballot box, and the words "Shame on Andy, Jacqui, and Dennis."
Also, the 3 voted to appoint the Chairman of the TO Planning Commission, Tom Glancy, even after it was exposed that night that Glancy added his name in 1998 to an offensive mud slinging campaign flyer against Masry, allegedly produced by Gillette and Fox. It portrayed Ed Masry as a "cult lawyer" who Defended money launders and drug dealers! When questioned by our ethical Mayor Claudia Bill-De la Pena on why he did that, Glancy said on Tuesday he "really couldn’t give an honest answer". Think about what that really means! Glancy couldn't give "an honest answer". Watch the reruns on Channel 10. Claudia was at her finest. She is a paragon of what an elected official should be.
At that vote, Councilman Dennis Gillette defended Glancy's involvement in the libelous brochure, saying folks do things in the heat of a political fight. (The brochure was printed on behalf of Gillette's previous campaign.) No, not all "folks" lose their moral compass over politics. I make it a policy to never say anything that I am not willing to defend 10 days or 10 years from now. I stand by my word. I don't need to do "damage control" later. These dirty politicians in TO should try that for a change. It would be refreshing.
Also, folks should know that despite the Star reporting the contrary, there WAS an incident in the sequestering room on Tues 12/13/05 at City Hall. Former Mayor Bob Wilson picked a fight with me, calling me an idiot when I invited the group of 34 civic minded folks to look over the Conejo Valley School District $223 million budget that I picked up earlier that night. Then he denied it when I dared him to say it again and louder this time. He said, "I vote to shut her up!" Then his buddy, candidate Forrest Frields, said "He apologizes". Frield proceeded to ask why I wouldn't accept this non-apology, as though I was the one who was uncivil! Amazing that Bob Wilson (owner of Cisco’s restaurants) needs a flunky to do his apologizing for him.
While on City Council, Bob Wilson was frequently abusive and rude to citizens, especially women, who came to speak at City Council. That night there were 8 officers assigned to monitor the event. However, police were in the hallway, not in our room, and of course they did nothing. I complained to the City staffers who were "escorting" us.
I called Chief Carpinter Thursday and told him that it had been a waste to have taxpayers provide police protection on Tuesday because the officers were not even in the room. The Chief of Police said that they really couldn't have done anything unless a crime occurred. Baloney! The officers were supposed to be there to keep the peace, but were stationed too far away to be effective. How convenient that Bob Wilson, once again, got away with no consequences after abusing a citizen of Thousand Oaks. There were plenty of witnesses.
This is the same Bob Wilson who insulted a Citizen last spring at a Council meeting about poor Phil Gatch, the City Manager who was pressured to resign by Fox and Gillette after 38 years of loyal service. Wilson went over his time that night during his Public comments and a bald headed man told him to sit down. Wilson, Hawaiian shirt disheveled and buttoned wrong, passed by him and they exchanged words, with Wilson continuing to slur his words, saying "You don't have any hair on your balls either!� to the horror of dozens of people within earshot! Nice talk from the former mayor. What a bitter man and what a poor loser.
