Letter: A PAC Intrusion

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On Aug. 29, there was a much welcome afternoon of music in Bluebird Park. It was a beautiful day, people seemed to genuinely happy to resume our normal summer tradition and the event was well attended. Enter Councilmember George Weiss, all decked out in his bright blue Laguna Residents First t-shirt, soliciting all of for signatures for his ridiculous 19-page ballot initiative. I want to remind the voters that Music in the Park is sponsored by the City of Laguna Beach. Meaning paid by everyone’s taxes. It is not a propaganda peddling opportunity for George and the PACs he represents.

Weiss has proven in his short time on our City Council that he is a mess and uses city-sponsored events to advance his personal and PAC’s agenda at a non-partisan events. If Weiss and his associates (Residents Last – PACs First) believe that this was and innocent plan, then why did he cover up his Residents First shirt once people started taking pictures? Why did his associates break down their tables at the entrances of the parks and scamper away once it became obvious that many were annoyed at the solicitations? What’s next, we get them or the opposition at Sunset Serenades? Do we get this all-next summer? Do we have multiple groups at the same event? How does that work? PACs in our small town are ruining our events and culture for everyone.

Do we soon get ballot initiatives from all PACs? We have a system where we do get to vote on everything, it’s called our regular election cycle (every two years). With 88% of the city-wide registered voters participating in our last election and multiple venues to platforms used on all issues, I believe we all know how our officials vote and we support accordingly. Using our public events to sponsor PACs solicitation efforts is completely out of line and needs to be corrected immediately before our fun community events are just marketing opportunities for political organizations, businesses, and nonprofit fundraising.

Jeffrey Redeker, Laguna Beach

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