ABSTRACT: At the City Council meeting on November 6, 2007, during Appearances, Carmel resident Skip Lloyd spoke about his concerns about the recent Forest Theater Foundation’s Neighborhood Meeting regarding their “pre-design” plans for the Forest Theater. Mayor McCloud’s response was typical in four essential respects. A transcription of Skip Lloyd’s and Mayor McCloud’s remarks is presented. Comments are made with respect to the content of Mayor McCloud’s response.
City Council Agenda
Regular Meeting
November 6, 2007
VI. Appearances
Anyone wishing to address the City Council on matters within the jurisdiction of the City and are not on the agenda may do so now. Matters not appearing on the City Council’s agenda will not receive action at this meeting but may be referred to staff for a future meeting.
During Appearances, Carmel resident Skip Lloyd spoke about his concerns about the recent Forest Theater Foundation’s Neighborhood Meeting regarding their “pre-design” plans for the Forest Theater. Mayor Sue McCloud’s response was typical Sue McCloud in four essential respects:
1. McCloud’s insistence on having the last word
2. McCloud’s defensive posture, devoid of concern for the thoughts expressed and devoid of empathy for the speaker
3. McCloud’s poorly articulated response, characterized by extraneous information.
4. McCloud’s omission of crucial, essential information which creates false and erroneous impressions.
Herewith are the statements of Skip Lloyd and Mayor Sue McCloud, as follows:
Skip Lloyd: “I just wanted to speak for the moment; I’m Skip Lloyd, about the Forest Theater meeting the other day. As you know, there was a Master Plan done for the Forest Theater back in 2001, and I wasn’t aware much of that, but I understand that is was a very, very long process, thoughtful process, with a lot of people involved, with very deep feelings about the Forest Theater, before the plan was generated.”
“The meeting the other day, not really sure, people aren’t sure where this fits into the process here. As you know, the meeting was called with these flyers; the distribution of these to the neighbors was by putting them into an envelope and distributing them on the front porches of, or whatever else, places where they were put, of some neighbors. Obviously, that’s not going to generate a really great response because some people, as we know, don’t live in town all the time, maybe on vacation or anywhere else.”
“And so I would hope, personally, and I know some others in the community feel this way, that before this preliminary plan travels to far down the track, that there is solicitation of a lot more response to the plan because people just saw the plan on a flat one dimension approach and there were many, many questions, and of course, they begin to generate more as you take away and think about it. And so I think that would really be important for the Foundation and the City, of course, it’s the City’s property, ultimately, it’s going to have to do this, to have that work through the process without people choosing up sides and going through one of these donnybrooks which could happen.”
“Some people got a little concerned, or at least one person, over the fact that this was distributed in a city envelope with a city return address on the envelope and so that got people thinking, hey, this thing is moving fast and we better form up and get organized and a reactive kind of feeling to it which is not positive for a community project like this.”
“And as we know, it’s not just the people who live right around the Forest Theatre, they have it literally in their front years, but all of us, even those of us who live slightly out-of-town, have sometimes very deep feelings about the Forest Theater.”
“And so I hope that I would encourage you to the extent you have influence with the Foundation at this point, to have them open up the process before it’s sets to much carved into stone because then you risk having a real community donnybrook. And you don’t need another one of those right now. Thank you."
Mayor Sue McCloud: “I’ll close the Appearances section.”
“But I would like to comment on Skip’s remarks that were just made. And that was, I don’t know if you were there at the beginning when it was explained Skip, that the concern, there were about 100 notices that were passed out to the immediate neighbors, as I understand, and the idea was that they are the people who have some very strong feelings about what we have heard over the years about sound and light and parking. And we didn’t, wanted them to have the opportunity to express themselves before it got lost in a larger group, to get those factored in and so that was the purpose of the meeting. And why it was put on neighborhood doors. And the envelopes are typical of what we do with noticing, when somebody is, has something coming before the Design Review Board or Forest & Beach or whatever, it’s supposed to go out in a city envelope. Now, because we all get so much junk mail, that people were throwing them away without realizing what they were so those were our intentions as far as the Foundation putting on the meeting that night. And they have also had a series of meetings to get some consensus among the three historical partners. So it will go on from there. But, that was just a very conceptual meeting.”
COMMENTS:
• Mayor McCloud’s response failed to address the central concerns of Skip Lloyd; namely, what is the city’s role in the promotion of the Forest Theater Foundations “pre-design” plan, the apparent dismissal of the Congleton 2001 Forest Theater Facilities Master Plan and what is the process and timetable for the presentation of the Forest Theater Foundation’s plan to the public?
• While Mayor McCloud’s and the Forest Theater Foundation’s intentions may have been to solicit concerns from the immediate neighbors at the so-called Neighborhood Meeting at Vista Lobos, in fact, the majority of audience members were not immediate neighbors of the Forest Theatre. McCloud’s omission of this salient fact makes her response about the purpose of the meeting moot.
• Mayor McCloud’s statement, “And the envelopes are typical of what we do with noticing, when somebody is, has something coming before the Design Review Board or Forest & Beach or whatever, it’s supposed to go out in a city envelope.” McCloud’s analogy between the City’s noticing a Commission agenda item and the Forest Theater Foundation’s Neighborhood Meeting notice in a City Hall envelope is a false analogy; that is, the Forest Theater Foundation’s Neighborhood Meeting was not on a City Council/Commission agenda and therefore the announcement of a Forest Theater Foundation Neighborhood Meeting should not have been in City Hall envelopes.
• Mayor McCloud: “But, that was just a very conceptual meeting.” McCloud is notorious for soft pedaling the beginning phases of a proposal and then later exclaiming that so much time and effort has been expended that we have to go forward by implementing her previously predetermined course of action ex. the installation of the Sunset Cultural Center, Inc., attempt to install the Business Improvement District, attempt to install city-wide paid parking, et cetera.
• Whether intellectually challenged and/or morally challenged, Mayor McCloud fails to cogently address the essence of individuals’ remarks and seeks to manipulate and deceive the public through sins of omission and extraneous verbiage.
5 comments:
In Carmel, Sue gets away with her nonsense talk. After her CIA career ended, it was a different story in the private sector. In the private sector, she was shown the door within weeks because unproductive nonsense in not tolerated. Performance is the bottom line and Sue could not measure up to the company's performance standards.
Since I began reading this blog, I have noticed all the things the mainstream press excludes and omits. It is interesting many of these things have to do with accountability. Bob Woodward has even admitted he and his colleagues are too cozy, too much in bed with their Washington sources, representing their sources agendas instead of objectively and critically reporting information which is essential to an informed citizenry in a representative democracy.
Lessons from my long ago English and Debate classes: strive to use language and vocabulary precisely and exactly. It is embarrassing we have someone representing us who cannot communicate effectively.
It has been McCloud's habit at city council meetings, since becoming mayor, to respond to people, who have said something she doesn't want to hear, with unpleasant and/or misdirecting rejoinders after the speakers can no longer defend themselves or the point they were trying to make. Often it sounds as if she takes such comments from the public as a personal affront. Certainly, she is as known for cherry picking her data to make her point as she is known for her habit of ignoring the central issues in a controversey in order to direct peoples attention to peripheral issues or even strawmen, which she sets up to knock down. That she has been effective with this strategy to the detriment of Carmel residents and businesses makes it just that much more sad and deplorable.
I think someone has been lying to Skip Lloyd. He said "As you know, there was a Master Plan done for the Forest Theater back in 2001, and I wasn’t aware much of that, but I understand that is was a very, very long process, thoughtful process, with a lot of people involved". I remember that "process" and far from being"long" and "thoughtful" with "a lo of people involved", it was only 3 short meetings with almost no public comment, no plans distributed, no special public hearings. As Skip acknowledges, he wasn't even aware of them! Who on earth is giving him this obviously misleading information?
Post a Comment