PLENTY THAT IS BROKEN, IN NEED OF FIXING!

According to The Carmel Pine Cone, City Council members and supporters of Mayor Sue McCloud encouraged her to run for a fifth mayoral term because “IF IT ain’t broke, let’s not fix it.” Actually, in reality, there is plenty that is broken in the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea which needs fixing.

• Lack of Investment in City Infrastructure: Mayor McCloud’s 7-year plus record of overseeing a lack of investment in critical city infrastructure, particularly our streets, roads and avenues, which is essential to our quality of life and economic prosperity as a tourist destination; $250,000 city expenditure to Pebble Beach for legal costs associated with the Areas of Special Biological Significance Cease and Desist Order which resulted in a denial of a waiver, instead of using those monies towards compliance with the City’s stormwater runoff obligations; City expenditures of nearly $350,000 towards the sale of the Flanders Mansion Property instead of using those monies for Municipal Code mandated maintenance and upkeep of this National Register of Historic Places resource; et cetera.

• Underfunding & Understaffing City Departments: Mayor McCloud’s record of underfunding the Fire Department to at least an amount of $400,000 according to the recently completed Citygate Associates “Fire Department Consolidation Feasibility Analysis for the Cities of Monterey, Pacific Grove and Carmel” report; underfunding and understaffing of the Forest, Parks and Beach Department, which has resulted in failure to implement numerous aspects of the City’s Local Coastal Program, such as reforestation and maintenance of our forest, parks and beach; understaffing the Planning Department, which currently has personnel vacancies, including the Community Planning & Building Director (vacant since 2003), Assistant Planner, Code Enforcement Coordinator; understaffing of the Public Works Department, which currently has no Public Works Director; understaffing of the Library, which currently has a Reference Librarian vacancy; et cetera.

• Abysmal Stewardship of our Cultural, Historical & Environmental Public Assets: Mayor McCloud’s record of failing to annually budget for the maintenance, upkeep and ADA compliance measures for the Forest Theatre, Scout House and Flanders Mansion properties, including McCloud’s failure to budget for and implement the multi-phrase, multi-year recommendations of the 2001 Congleton Forest Theater Facilities Master Plan, even when she was personally aware of the conditions of the Forest Theatre when she had a minor role in “Brigadoon” years ago, calling the conditions “abominable;” McCloud’s failure to budget for and implement ADA compliance measures to the Scout House so that it could be expeditiously reopened as a community center; and McCloud’s failure to budget for the maintenance and upkeep of the National Register of Historic Places Flanders Mansion Property and her failure to determine an appropriate and compatible public use for the property in Mission Trail Nature Preserve.

• Dissolution/Disbanding of Commissions & Board: Mayor McCloud’s interference with the operations of the Community & Cultural Commission, particularly around the time of the creation and installation of Sunset Cultural Center, Inc as the non-profit to manage the Sunset Center, which led to the dissolution of the Community & Cultural Commission; McCloud’s disbanding of the Community & Safety Traffic Commission and replacing it with an Ad Hoc Traffic Committee which meets only periodically and in secret; and McCloud’s disregard for the efforts and recommendations of the Carmel Art Board, particularly with regard to the City’s Inventory of Artworks, which led to the mass resignations of the Art Board Members. The dissolution and disbanding of these Commissions and Board has demonstrated a lack of regard for expert advice from citizens on cultural, traffic and art issues.

• Illegal Means to Achieve Ends: Mayor McCloud’s insistence on the selling of the Flanders Mansion Property by adopting illegal means to achieve her goal of selling the National Register of Historic Places property in Mission Trail Nature Preserve, including disregarding the legal advise of the City Attorney and contracting with a Special Counsel for total legal costs of nearly $250,000; only complying with applicable State and City laws when Monterey County Superior Court Judge Robert O’Farrell ruled the City violated the California Environmental Quality Act, California Government Code and the City’s Municipal Code.

• Breach of Public Trust: Mayor McCloud’s failure to understand and abide by the spirit and intent of the State of California’s Open Government Law, the Ralph M. Brown Act, (California Government Code Sections 54950-54963), which states, in part, as follows:

“In enacting this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards and councils and the other public agencies in this State exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly.”

“The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.”

Recent examples abound, including Mayor McCloud’s failure to communicate the professional planning services agreement with Pacific Municipal Consultants (PMC), which specializes in LAFCO and Annexations and Zoning, the scope of services provided to the City regarding the proposed Leidig Carmel Convalescent Hospital Redevelopment Project and the September 2007 city expenditure of $10,527.60 to PMC; McCloud’s failure to announce the professional services agreement with appellate attorney Joel Franklin for his advise on whether to appeal Monterey County Superior Court Judge Robert O’Farrell’s decision against the City with regard to the selling of the Flanders Mansion Property and the city expenditure of $12,800 to Franklin for his October 2007 advise; McCloud’s failure to communicate an “environmental review services” contract with Denise Duffy & Associates, the firm which completed the Draft and Final Environmental Impact Reports for the City’s selling of the Flanders Mansion Property, for a city expenditure of $14,248.38 in late October 2007.

Apparently, Mayor Sue McCloud wants to run for a fifth mayoral term because she wants to see several pressing issues through to completion, namely the “debate” over the Flanders Mansion Property, renovation of the Forest Theatre and a determination of whether there is public support for a city art museum. But given McCloud’s penchant for meddling in the affairs of commissions and dissolving commissions when members voice recommendations contrary to her personal agendas, her "ends justify illegal means" philosophy and her failure to understand and implement the tenets of open government for the benefit of all Carmelites, Mayor Sue McCloud’s 7-year plus record causing to be broken all that she cannot fix makes her undeserving of another two-year term as mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea.