The purpose of The Carmel-by-the-Sea WATCHDOG! (the “Blog”) is three-fold:
• Provide a forum for Carmelites and interested individuals to express their opinions, thoughts and ideas about the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea.
• Highlight topics, statements, happenings and information (e.g. core commercial tree photo inventory, studies, et cetera) with a focus on items not covered by The Monterey County Herald, The Carmel Pine Cone and Monterey County Weekly.
• Empower Carmelites with facts, documentation and context.
The writer of the Monterey County Weekly article, Kera Abraham wrote, “After a string of interviews, I get the impression that Sue McCloud holds her community dear and works hard to portray it in the best possible light.”
If Mayor Sue McCloud “holds her community dear,” then why in 7 years as Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea has she not accomplished the following for the benefit of residents and visitors alike?
• Scout House: Renovate and rehabilitate the historic structure, make ADA compliant and open the Scout House to user groups and the public.
• Flanders Mansion: Renovate and rehabilitate the National Register of Historic Places resource, determine a compatible use and open the Flanders Mansion to the public.
• The Forest Theater: Renovate, rehabilitate and make ADA compliant the historic, dilapidated Forest Theater
• Sunset Center: Ensure Sunset Cultural Center, Inc. (SCC), the non-profit organization charged with management of the city-owned Sunset Center, honored the tradition of the Sunset Center by continuing its role as a community center, as opposed to a cultural center which requires city subsidies of over $700,000/year and has the support of a small minority of Carmelites – only 14% of all tickets sold are to Carmelites.
• Deferred Maintenance: Pave, repair and reconstruct streets, roads and avenues in poor condition in Carmel-by-the-Sea.
While Kera Abraham characterized the Blog as “dull,” the contents are meant to accurately reflect the state of affairs in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Moreover, to the extent the Blog chronicles a pattern of violations of State law, Municipal Code, proper procedure and protocol, et cetera, it raises serious issues of breaches of public trust which too many Carmelites are uninformed.
For the Monterey County Weekly article, McCloud of Mystery: THE CARMEL MAYOR KEEPS HER SECRETS, August 2, 2007, Kera Abraham, click on Post title above or copy, paste and click
http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/issues/Issue.08-02-2007/news/Article.news_3
9 comments:
Sue McCloud may think in her own mind that she "holds her community dear" but that is only to the extent she can do so while reducing the city's budget, reducing the capabilities of its government and drawing what she considers positive attention to herself as an individual. Renovating the Scout House would cost money - money the city has. McCloud would rather sell it and use the money for annual expenses. Or perhaps more likely, she'd rather see it put into reserves as other revenue is. This despite the fact that reserves are already almost equal to Carmel's annual revenue. That is nine or ten times or even higher than reserves in other cities. The Flanders Mansion is in the same category. To be fair however a majority of Carmelites appear to see the building as a white elephant and would be glad to see it privately owned. The Forest Theater's renovation would also cost money. Again, Carmel can afford it but the neo-cons and libertarians on the city council believe the less money expended the better. The Sunset Center is a special case. McCloud clearly sees its renovation ond operation by a private public charity, however poorly, as her legacy. She sees spending $1,500,000 (approximately 14% of the city budget)to support it each year, even though it no longer benefits many Carmel residents, as money well spent since she believes it helps polish her personal image. Actually, if things continue at the Sunset Center as they are, it won't be very long before most Carmelites recognise that it is another white elephant. Some of the damage could be rectified but that will have to wait until McCloud is no longer in a position to prevent it from happening. A great deal of money is in Carmel's reserves that can only be spent on capital improvements, which includes
paving, repair, and rebuilding the city's infrastructure. The longer that is put off the worse an already bad situation will become and the more expensive it will be. None the less, McCloud and at least two other city council members are only willing to release funds to do small projects that they can point to at election time. Again, they are reluctant to allow the city to spend money no matter what the consequences to business and residents alike because their philosophy of government calls for minimizing spending and the size of city staff to absurd levels. Finally, this Blog is sometimes dull when it is performing the valuable public service of informing Carmelites about what events are happening. It may also provide more technical information on important topics than many people are willing to slog through (I'd suggest a summary preceding the data would be a good idea). On the other hand, the Blog can be exciting as when it gives readers surprising and/or new information of which they were unaware. The Blog is doing a great job of providing important information and is even better now than when it began.
Let’s face it. The media has promoted Sue McCloud, left her unchallenged on everything she has said and covered up or downplayed her failures. Then along comes a blog and exposes the stories the media refuses to report on. The media either ignores the blog or dismisses it by calling it dull and only a few read it anyway. The media is not looking out for the folks in Carmel, for sure.
Sue McCloud doesn’t read blogs. I’ve got news for her. Where has she been? Some of the best blogs inform better than the MSM, far better. I guess she isn’t very progressive or curious or techno-savvy or is it all a blustering, unconvincing act?
Sue McCloud tried to intimidate the MCW reporter. Bloggers are anonymous. Sue is responsible for a climate of fear in Carmel. No one dares criticize or dissent from Sue’s line. If anyone has the temerity to do so, they are called on the phone and berated for their actions, shutting them up from then on. I should know. I was one of those people. And I couldn't believe it when it happened. She is not a nice person.
TO: Anonymous
FROM: villageinforest
Good Idea! Abstracts/summaries preceding post will be written for lenghty future Blog Posts.
Been reading this blog since I first learned of its existence. Keep up the good work!
I'll bet that MCW article mentioning this blog's URL will bring more readers. I urge all readers to tell locals, friends and visitors to check out this other voice in the forest.
The mayor wasn’t even gracious enough to buy the reporter a cup of coffee. No class, among other things.
It is ironic the blog has more useful info than the quasi interview and info communicated in the MCW story. Yet the focus is on McCloud's pablum, not the public trust issues raised in the blog. So who's looking out for Carmel residents and Carmel?
WHERE IS THE CITIZEN OUTRAGE?
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