Village Matters

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Campaign Promises

By Ann Christoph

Some campaign promises are best left unkept.

Candidates get a lot of predictable questions and for the most part they give predictable answers.

Except for this one. The question at the Laguna Beach Independent forum back in October was, “How do we restore civility to City Council meetings and bridge the current divide?”

The expected replies from Council candidates followed—about improving communication, working with other councilmembers, and providing meaningful opportunities for the public to participate in decision making.

Peter Blake responded, “You can restore civility instantly by not electing me. I’m not interested in civility. I got into this race to start arguments. I am angry.”

Now he’s on the Council, and being angrily argumentative is his approach, and he’s sticking to it.

With his comments, a little controversy about Laguna’s police cars became a national cause celebre on Fox news. Suddenly the issue turned into “patriotism under attack.”

The issue was a small one. “Are there any other changes to the design of police cars that would accompany changing from all white to black and white cars?” The agenda bill for Feb. 19 when the council approved the black and white cars just showed applying the blue and white logo from the traditional all-white cars to the white panel on the doors of the black and white cars. Simple. But after the Council voted, city staff sent up a series of illustrations on the logo for council review. These new illustrations were not the same as those in the agenda bill, and these were never turned around so that the public could see them or comment on them. The Council selected one of them.

This was the problem—getting approval of a design without its being seen at all by the public. No wonder people were shocked at the change. The design the council approved was never seen by the public until it appeared on the police cars. To complicate matters, it turned out that the installed red, white and blue logo was a more visually intense version of what the Council had actually approved.

Public review was the issue—not whether people supported the American flag or were patriotic.

At the Council meeting last Tuesday, testifiers had a lot of fun dressing in red, white and blue costumes, espousing patriotism, and singing the national anthem. Even though all this was beside the point of the agenda bill, it could have been a healthy outlet and opportunity to reflect on love of our flag and country. Trouble was, it went too far.

There are repercussions coming from this playing around with exaggeration and manipulation of public opinion for dramatic effect.

Suddenly a national audience had a new focus for anger and hatred, and local Laguna residents who had a legitimate concern about the process of approval and who wanted an opportunity to review all alternatives objectively became targets of hateful messages and threats.

Have we forgotten that our country and flag stand for freedom of speech? No one should feel threatened when speaking out. In a community, we all have something to contribute. We look to our leaders to guide us with respect.

 

Ann Christoph is a landscape architect and former mayor and member of the City Council.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. Nice spin for Laguna Village not supporting the Police Chiefs decision. Your claim of “intense” colors is relevant but they only made the cars more visible, is your goal not to see the police? Village Laguna was on the anti flag minority side of the debate but decided not to make a vocal stand because the majority in the community would have turned on them and not attended the Charm House Tour.

  2. Hmm.. An interesting spin from Anne! For the record, you and Village Laguna started the frenzy with an email campaign which I printed and brought to the last Council meeting. Your fellow members began by referring to the car as a “MAGA” car. They and a few fellow activists felt that the car was too “militaristic”, “aggressive” and” hostile”. Our Chief of Police decided that we would be safer by having a black and white police car that was more uniform, asserted itself and was more visible. Hard to refute? It’s also a well-known fact that we have over 6 million visitors a year who come to Laguna to party and the appearance of the car could, and would, deter illegal activities. When your fellow activists couldn’t change the colors you went after the flag based graphic that was one of two approved by Council but then changed when the more abstract version came back from the printers pink and sky blue. Hardly colors befitting a police car. Right? Our Chief then made the decision to choose the other graphic which was bolder. That suddenly raised the ire of your fellow activists again. Now it was to “Nationalistic” Too “Patriotic” It had the word ICE in it. I know, you can’t make this shit up! After failing to gain traction, some activists threatened to sue the City and the City happily noticed the public and we voted again. During that time a local reporter for the LA Times wrote an article that I was quoted in and others as well. It made it to KTLA’s Facebook page and thousands became aware and sent emails to the Council. It lead to the national media becoming interested and they wrote about it prompting hundreds of emails in support of the flag based graphic on our black and white cars. Anne, you’ve moved towards your expected politicized spin and refer to an interview on FOX but leave out the interviews on hundreds of media outlets(CNN, CBS, LA Times, Univision, etc) all over the world. But that’s what’s expected of you. Start the fight, lose the fight and then blame the bully that you bullied. I’ve been through this with you a million times over the last year and it never changes. Up next are one of your fellow extremists who will join in on this, yet another choreographed attack on me (Johanna Felder? Verna Rollinger? Bonnie Hano? Charlotte Masarik? Armando Baez?) you can all chime in now.

    Anne please spare me your self-righteous BS and own your politics. Your concerned proclamations of compassion are ridiculous! It’s obvious what you’re up to. You and Village Laguna hate not being in control of everything in town. Why don’t you admit it? Did I embarrass our community? It’s more like we are the shining star in this great country of ours for standing up to people like yourself and preserving our national pride on our government vehicles, driven by government employees, in the United States of America!

    Let’s face it, you’ve lost two back to back elections because the residents of this community do not agree with you or Village Laguna’s vision for our future. Why don’t you give a new generation an opportunity to make Laguna the quaint, yet sophisticated and cultured village it can be, as opposed to the tired and hoky town you and Village Laguna will never see past.

    Peter Blake

  3. That’s a nice spin, but its not accurate. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

    “Public review was the issue—not whether people supported the American flag or were patriotic” . That’s twisting the facts to fit your narrative. The very first emails sent from VL on this issue speak for themselves. Peter Blake mentions some of their wordage above. The hatred and anger came from those who sent those emails. People responded when the flag was attacked and politicized by those few, a symbol which should unite us all, not divide us.

    “There are repercussions coming from this playing around with exaggeration and manipulation of public opinion for dramatic effect.” With all due respect, this is what Village Laguna does best! How many issues in this town have you manipulated and blown out of proportion crying “the sky is falling?” Historical ordinance and vacation rentals/homesharing come to mind. I remember the “white shirts” in those meetings and the exagerations and the fear mongering your group did on those two issues alone. By the way, the woman singing was a complete surprise to every one of us in that room!! Although I know her, I had no idea she could singor would even be there. I did tell her she did not have to give her name if she wanted to speak as she was concerned about that. The city and Barabra Diamond really force people to do this when it knowingly violates the Brown Act. I’ve brought this up many times, but the City Council seems deaf to it. You may decline to state your name or write it down.

    It wasn’t a “small” issue as you say – people on the left actually threatened to sue Laguna Beach over the flag design. And attacking the flag and making it political, as you learned, is no “small” thing.

    As for ‘decorum” – why dont you ask Toni Iseman what she said at that meeting during the handing out of awards for participants of Leadership Laguna? Ms. Iseman uttered disparaging remarks from the dias directed at Steve Dicterow when he was speaking about how participation in that program was a a good show of democracy. Her “decorum” and “courtesy” and is lacking in many other ways as well – like the pot calling the kettle black.

  4. Peter Blake saying Village Laguna “started the frenzy” is rich. With his self serving, bellicose appearances on national TV throwing a citizen under the bus by saying “the opposition says it’s too aggressive” (and then having them repeat it over and over) and saying he has to fight with “left wing extremists” every two weeks. Those are violent, dangerous words used to inflame conservatives. Every whack job extremist came out on YouTube denouncing Laguna. It was irresponsible, but typical for an individual with no experience in the public arena who has never come to terms with his anger issues and has demonstrated time and again that he is all too happy to hurt people. Pete needs some self awareness and anger management training. And now he has enlisted the world’s 2nd angriest human to be his doppelgänger and pit bull. What a pair. Fun times.

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