ABSTRACT: For the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea’s municipal election on April 8, 2008, incumbents Mayor Sue McCloud filed for mayor and City Council Members Ken Talmage and Karen Sharp filed for city council, as reported previously by The Carmel Pine Cone; additionally, Dogman McBill filed for mayor and Michael LePage filed for city council. Information about Mayor Sue McCloud, Dogman McBill, Michael LePage, Ken Talmage and Karen Sharp is presented. COMMENTS concerning the lack of timely reporting by The Carmel Pine Cone about the challengers, what that suggests for future objective, fair and balanced coverage and the importance of character, i.e. integrity, honesty and attitude, are presented.
As the filing period for the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea’s April 8, 2008 election closed on Friday, January 11, 200, in addition to incumbents Mayor Sue McCloud and City Council Members Ken Talmage and Karen Sharp, Dogman McBill filed for mayor and Michael LePage filed for city council.
In April 2006, Dogman McBill challenged Mayor Sue McCloud for mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Of 2,904 eligible voters, 46% voted for 1,343 ballots cast. Mayor Sue McCloud garnered 953 votes (262 at polls, 690 absentee) to win a fourth two-year term, while Dogman McBill garnered 335 votes (105 at polls, 230 absentee).
Michael LePage, former chair and current member of the Design Review Board, filed for city council. LePage was appointed to the Design Review Board in December 2001 and reappointed in October 2005 for another four year term ending in October 2009; the Design Review Board was created in 2000.
Mayor Sue McCloud was elected in 2000 and will be seeking her fifth two-year term as mayor.
Ken Talmage, then a Planning Commissioner, was appointed to the City Council in January 2007; he replaced City Council Member Erik Bethel, who resigned.
Karen Sharp, also then a Planning Commissioner and previously a Design Review Board Member, was appointed to the City Council in August 2007; she replaced City Council Member Michael Cunningham, who resigned.
COMMENTS:
• Amazingly, The Carmel Pine Cone did not cover the filings of Dogman McBill for mayor and Michael LePage for city council in the Friday, January 18, 2008 newspaper. Given the filing deadline of Friday, January 11, 2008, The Carmel Pine Cone’s omission of a timely article about the challengers and the upcoming campaigns and election raises serious questions about the news priorities of Owner/Publisher/Editor/Reporter Paul Miller.
• The Carmel Pine Cone’s Editorial, A race with no challengers?, on December 14, 2007, was a “on the one hand, on the other hand” editorial; on the one hand, the editorial stated that "token — or nonexistent — opposition...wouldn’t be a good thing” and “The lack of competition is a pity,” but on the other hand the editorial stated that “we don’t think the race should attract anyone who hasn’t lived in town at least a decade and served on a city board or commission for several years.” While Editor/Publisher/Owner/Reporter Paul Miller is entitled to his opinions, his bias about the qualifications of candidates raises questions about whether coverage of the campaigns will be objective, fair and balanced.
• The Carmel Pine Cone’s news and commentary history of being favorable to incumbents and current city officials, even to the extent of omitting critical and significance information that Carmelites should have been informed about, also raises questions about the fairness of the upcoming coverage of the candidates and the issues.
• While The Carmel Pine Cone takes the position that being a “city council member isn’t easy, and the decisions it requires aren’t for rookies,” it is the WATCHDOG’s position that the character of the candidate is more important than the experience of the candidate, especially given the fact that the issues facing Carmel-by-the-Sea are not complex or complicated issues. Simply put, candidates with a history of integrity and honesty and an attitude that open government is more than a city website, televised City Council meetings, webcasts, et cetera, should be supported and elected to the positions of mayor and city council of the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea.
6 comments:
Ah yes, experience. Sue’s experience in the CIA makes her a very poor mayor indeed. She fails to understand open government; she fails to understand the rule of law; she fails to understand division of labor, she is not the city manager; she fails to understand historic preservation and the Mills Act; and she fails to understand she is not indispensable; she fails to understand a lot of things. Vote for the alternative, Dogman McBill, on April 8, 2008.
Paul Miller and Sue McCloud are two peas in a pod. They both think they can do anything they want. Paul Miller thinks he can tell people what he wants them to hear when he wants them to hear it. He might as well call the Carmel Pine Cone, City Hall Times. So expect more city hall propaganda; don’t expect objective reporting or commentary. He wants to shape opinion by slanting “news” pro-Sue and her administration, no matter how obviously bad it is and no matter how much it hurts the public and our village.
Unfortunately, unbiased reporting is something we cannot expect from the Pine Cone. Paul Miller uses it as his bully pulpit not as a real newspaper.Some "news" articles belong on the editorial page, others simply omit facts that don't support Miller's preconceived notions. Few people, if any, read the Pine Cone to find out what's really going on in Carmel. Only people, who think Fox News is fair and unbiased would think that of the Pine Cone.
It is a shame that Sue McCloud and her hand picked City Council members have not faced real opposition during the last four elections. Hopefully, this April will prove different. Some of their opponents have been honest competent people, who would have been a big improvement over the idealistic impractical incumbents. It is necessary to run a good campaign first however. Even if these candidates would have been able to do a good job when elected, they needed to get elected and none of the opposition candidates were willing to spend the time and money necessary to run a viable campaign. The incumbents,however, were willing to do whatever it took and so easily won despite their proven inadequacies.
If the residents of Carmel do not come out and vote for the challenger to the current mayor they get what they deserve. She can then say again that she has a mandate to do whatever. Is that what Carmelites want?
It's a tough battle against the local media and the mayor's supporters but the silent majority has the power. Go for it!
Does that mean Clint Eastwood shouldn't have run, let alone been elected mayor of Carmel? He certainly didn't meet the experience cited by Paul Miller as a prerequisite for being a candidate. The irony is Clint Eastwood has done more for Carmel since he was mayor than he ever did during his two year term. The same cannot be said for Sue McCloud. Years from now, people will be saying Sue who? Except of course for the people who will have to reverse her anti-resident agenda achievements.
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