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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Are We All Kissey Face, Now?

You know it’s bad when former Supervisor Shirley Bianchi has to drive down from Cambria to bang heads together.  Which she did at Tuesday’s Supervisor’s meeting, telling the Board she intended to tell them to put on their big boy pants and get control of the snarky public who still has nasty things to say about her boy, Bruce Gibson, and his messy love life that’s spilled all over the Board, often turning them into collateral damage. 

But, she was too late.  Chairman Paul Teixeira had his pants on and told the public that they had to mind their manners during public comment or he’d stop the meetings and clear the room.  He also reminded the audience that the meetings were being televised and streamed and podcasted so everyone was to “keep it clean, this is a family show.”

All of which was a reaction to last week’s dust-up wherein Los Ososian, Tom Salmon, made reference to Gibson’s girlfriend/legislative aide in terms using the word “whore” and “prostitute,” which made everyone’s head explode and caused Tribune reporter, Bob Cuddy, to write a column about the chamber turning into a Blogosphere filled with anonymous trolls.

And so there it sits, for now.  But you just gotta know the Supervisors aren’t happy with this mess.  Gibson plopped this dead rat onto the dais and left it there under their noses.  What could they do?  Legally, little or nothing.  Gibson successfully gamed the system to make sure both he and his girlfriend/employee kept their respective jobs, the Board’s own waffling Code of Conduct Standards apparently has no enforcement teeth, so what can individual Board members do?  Give the guy a Brooklyn raspberry at the start of every meeting?  Make evil, threatening gang hand signs at him before the Pledge of Allegiance?

I mean, there’s no way to get rid of the mess since it’s now been legally formalized with a few strokes of the pen , blessed by County Counsel and politely accepted by the silence of the Board.  So, there’s no way to get rid of Gibson or his mess.  Until the end of his term, there he’ll sit, canary feathers sticking out of his mouth, Cheshire Cat grin on his face.  And there no way to stop public comment on the issue since the County has made it clear that system-gaming is allowed for certain kinds of people, and that is a move that can only continue to anger many citizens (and county staff) who feel that this game has been gaming them.

So there we are, week after week, the dead rat on the dais and it smells and everyone has to move their papers and coffee cups around it and keep a sharp eye out for members of the public who, at any given moment, can slip in a stealthy dead-rat reference that gob-smacks the Board right in their Big Boy Pants, and so eyes roll and everyone thinks, “Jeeze, I didn’t sign on for this crap,” and then looks at the clock, counting the hours until lunch.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for hitting the nail (rat) on the head. You pulled all the loose threads together and I
loved it!
Caroline

Anonymous said...

Ann, You have so much to say, why don't YOU run for office?

Churadogs said...

Anon: Hey, I'd be happy to if the county would build a huge pool full of alligators with a trap door over it right in front of the BOS dais with a switch at my seat. Then I'd invite "public comment." Heh-heh.

But, somehow, I don't think that's gonna happen, do you?

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

On another topic altogether and not yet listed on the online Trib obituaries, I believe one of the famous sewer activists of yore has passed. In today's paper Trib there is listed a Michael Jones from Los Osos who worked at the Post Office.

One of the cleverest and most articulate speakers Los Osos has ever seen. While I disagreed with his position on the sewer I had to enjoy his words, they were unparalleled.

RIP Michael, you have been missed from the podium for a while, but you are not forgotten.

Churadogs said...

Oh, no. I'm so sorry to hear of it. He did have a wonderful way with words. RIP is right. Our little community is diminished once again.

Anonymous said...

A little ironic given the bittersweet praise for Michael Jones came from the very same person who personally berated him at board meetings in '06.

Alon Perlman said...

Mike Jones was passionate and eloquent, and that was recognised by all.

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

I barely spoke at board meetings in 2006 Anon 10:46, so I think that you are confusing my resistance to his ideas on blogs with my actual spoken words. But I note your chicken yellow way of dissing me by posting as "Anon."

Anonymous said...

From: "M Jones"
Subject: do you know her?
To:
Date: Thursday, July 6, 2006, 11:32 PM

I don't know if you know her but Ive seen her a few times. I think she's Lou's wife. After I spoke at public comment last meeting she came up and says to me that she wishes I would move and 'suffer.' Huh? wHat a bitch! Pisses me off

Mike