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  1. TopTop #1
    Peacetown Jonathan's Avatar
    Investigative Reporter

    In His Own Words: Patrick Slayter’s Championing of the CVS Project

    Incumbent candidate Patrick Slayer has been a dedicated, hard-working and competent Council Member. I am running for office to replace him on the Council not because of any deficiencies in his character, but because of the way he has voted and acted, in opposition to a number of major public interest issues that I, and many in our community, have advocated for during the past four years.

    As CVS is the most newsworthy of these issues at the moment, and since Mr Slayter took me to task during our debate last week over what he said were my mischaracterizations of his position, I would like to present quotes from the public record and let voters judge for themselves.

    My current "Actions Speak Louder Than Words" flier comparing Council Member Slayter's actions on major issues with mine, can be viewed to the right (click to enlarge) and below. My flier states that Council Member Slayter, “Championed and voted for the faulty traffic report and the CVS Project.”

    At the debate, Mr. Slayter said, “Well first I'd like to address the idea that I somehow championed a traffic study. The minutes of that meeting indicate that I had one simple question regarding how the parking was calculated. If somebody wants to interpret that as championing a traffic study that's fine.”

    The meeting that Council Member Slayter refers to took place on July 5, 2011. Full minutes of that meeting took can be read here.

    The “mitigated negative declaration” of that traffic report was passed that evening, despite a finding that there was no significant traffic on Pelini corner, the most congested crossroads of our City. Once the Council passed the faulty study, it became impossible for the Council to even consider traffic as an issue (that's why Sebastopol Tomorrow had to take the CVS developer to Court to stop the project). As I later uncovered in the most extensive investigation done about the faulty traffic report and the role that Planning Director Kenyon Webster was playing in pushing the project through, the report claimed that it took less that 35 seconds to get through Main Street from Bodega Avenue heading eastbound during afternoon rush hour. It found this only because Sebastopol’s Planning Department provided faulty information to the Aeon traffic study company, telling it to measure traffic on Bodega from High Street, instead of Jewell Avenue, where everyone knows it begins.

    Had Patrick Slayter and Council Member Kathleen Shaffer not led the Council to approve this faulty traffic report, the CVS project would never have advanced without a full environmental impact and traffic study. A full study would likely have led to a conclusion that bringing 2,000 cars into this congested corner in West County would cause too large an impact on the community. The project probably would have ended right there, before any lawsuits or drawn out hearings.

    Yet the only Council Member who questioned the need to ratify the faulty report that evening was Sarah Gurney. Mr. Slayter, as he suggested, asked a question about parking. As provided below directly form the minutes in blue (with bold used by me for emphasis, Mr, Slayter had a lot more to say about the necessity of approving the CVS development:

    "Councilmember Slater moved and Councilmember Shaffer seconded the motion to certify the MND [Mitigated Negative Declaration of environmental and traffic impact] as prepared and as was previously submitted to the Planning Commission."

    Bringing the traffic impact study to a vote was only the beginning of Council Member Slayter’s advocacy work for the CVS project that evening. These are his three other relevant comments, taken directly from the minutes of that very long meeting:

    “Councilmember Slayter stated this project is an interesting case study and is a big land use issue. He stated he has heard that this project is too large, too much, reaches too far, and tonight he has heard that it is too small. He stated it is stuck in goldilocks conundrum in how to enliven the community, economically, density wise, functionally, aesthetically, etc and stated he believes that this project is threading those needles.”

    “Councilmember Slayter thanked the applicant for seeing the project through and following the guidelines, ordinances and City laws. He stated that changing the rules in the mid way is not fair and not good and would be disingenuous and not respectful of the process. He stated the applicant has followed the rules of the game to the letter and has been responsive. He stated this project has evolved from community meetings and that the applicant volunteered for the preliminary design review meetings. He stated this is a private site not owned by the City and the zoning ordinance dictates how the property can be used.”

    “Councilmember Slayter clarified that it has been brought up in comments that the General Plan has not been followed. He stated that the General Plan is a loose guideline and can be interpreted a number of different ways and that the zoning ordinance is the required standard to be followed.

    This last statement was significant in that it was a misleading interpretation of the law, diminishing the importance of the General Plan. In this month’s Sonoma County Gazette here Helen Shane wrote about the is questionable interpretation, although she refers to a later debate in which Council Member Shaffer repeats what Mr. Slayter first stated to the public months earlier. Ms. Shane explained:

    “Later in 2011, during a City Council debate about the Design Review Board's finding that the proposed CVS project did not meet the Board's guidelines, City Council Member Shaffer stated that the General Plan is only an aspirational document. The City Council must follow the zoning code, which is the actual law, she said. She asked Planning Director Kenyon Webster to back up that statement.

    Mr. Webster calmly affirmed Shaffer's statement, saying that the Zoning Code is the document that states and implements City policies. This assertion dodged the fact that the State of California established General Plans as the controlling documents for development of its cities and counties. Guidelines on State websites confirm that “Whatever form of zoning a community adopts, its zoning ordinance must be consistent with the General Plan, and if the Zoning Code is inconsistent with the General Plan, the Zoning Code is invalid.”(emphasis added).


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    Last edited by Peacetown Jonathan; 10-22-2014 at 10:33 AM.
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  3. TopTop #2
    Helen Shane's Avatar
    Helen Shane
     

    Re: In His Own Words: Patrick Slayter’s Championing of the CVS Project



    In my own words:

    Editor:

    I’ve been active in local politics for many years. As a practice, I support candidates I believe have the best interests of our town at heart, and have the skills, experience and stamina to take the steps that good governance demands. I also put my money where my mouth is.

    Now I need to speak of someone I am not endorsing, and give the reasons why.

    Jonathan Greenberg is a very clever man. He has nominated himself as the progressive voice that the Council needs to fulfill its role of successful leadership of our community. He is very ambitious and enterprising; he does not hesitate to use hyperbole when pursuing his apparent need to aggrandize his talent and capabilities for service in the public arena.

    At his request, John Kramer and I met with him a few years ago when the job of City Manager opened. He asked that we support his application for the job. We told him we would not. We were frankly astonished. As politely as we could, we told him he was not qualified for the job.

    Jonathan again approached me to ask if I would support him in his application for the job of Community Outreach, a new consultant position created a couple of years ago. I told him I would not support him over Holly Hansen, who was hired and whom I think does a fine job, quietly and without fanfare.

    Jonathan recently tried to tout himself as having a leadership role in the challenge to CVS. I have stated publicly that it is simply his fiction. It is the world according to Jonathan. He is one of many people who spoke at Council meetings and wrote letters. The research he apparently conducted regarding the traffic study was interesting, but he unearthed no new or useful information and did not contribute to the case in any way. A number of community members contributed to the cost of waging the legal battle; Jonathan, who says actions speak louder than words, did not.

    Now he has declared himself to be more fit as a Councilperson than incumbent Pat Slayter. I emphatically reject that.

    Pat Slayter did at first support the CVS application, as did Councilmembers Michael Kyes, Guy Wilson and Kathleen Shaffer. Kyes soon regretted his vote, and worked hard. He joined the challenge to the application the following month and with Sarah Gurney he voted to uphold the DRB’s rejection of the design.

    Pat believed, as did the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary members and Sebastopol Citizens, that it would benefit our town. Over the past couple of years, however, he has changed his mind. He introduced the Council resolution for a ban on drive thrus. That was a major step in bringing CVS to the bargaining table. Pat’s professional skill and experience as an architect has contributed to the Council’s grasp and understanding of a number of specific issues in the negotiations with CVS. He is, I believe, politically more moderate than others on the Council. His influence balances Council discussions and decisions. He is not flamboyant or vociferous. He just does the job quietly and with dignity.

    I endorse and support Pat Slayter, Una Glass and Sarah Gurney for Sebastopol City Council. They can be trusted to govern our city and represent our entire community with honesty and firsthand knowledge of what’s been happening.

    As for CVS, they’ve found a way to repair, if not cure, the mis-steps of the Council that was in place in 2011, when we were sucked into the CVS debacle we’re now, at long last, resolving.

    The present Council has grown into a cooperative, constructive governing body. They do not make claims of leadership that do not hold up under the light of day. We can put our trust in them.

    I join Craig Boblitt, Craig Litwin, Lynn Deedler and Sandra DeBella Bodley and endorse incumbent Jim Horn for the Palm Drive Hospital Board. He brings knowledge, experience and common sense to a very complicated, trying situation.

    Please join me and vote for all of them.

    Helen Shane
    Last edited by Barry; 10-19-2014 at 01:33 PM.
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  5. TopTop #3
    Peacetown Jonathan's Avatar
    Investigative Reporter

    Jonathan Greenberg’s Record of Effective Leadership On CVS Issue

    Helen Shane’s post suggests that my claim to “having a leadership role in the challenge to CVS” is “simply his fiction.”

    In response to Ms. Shane’s strange interest in maligning me, I will present the documentable facts of the case, and let the reader see which of us is concocting fiction.

    I would like to start with an ironic twist. On February 8, 2012, two years before I seriously considered running for City Council, but after I began collaborating, in a leadership capacity, on the CVS issue, I received this email from Helen Shane

    “I think you should consider running for council this fall. Guy and Shaffer's terms are up. Wouldn't it be nice to have a hand in setting policy instead of being on the cleanup crew?”

    Certainly, the word “leader” is open to interpretation. Ms. Shane’s odd interpretation seems to be someone who joined her organization and funded its lawsuit. I never did that. What I did do, however, was spend hundreds of hours, over the course of more than two years, to research and publish the County’s most extensive investigation, legal analysis, and commentaries about the CVS issue, lawsuits and related politics. I did this independently, without pay, and on behalf of the public’s right to transparency, information and responsive government.

    I also brought these uncovered issues to the public and City Council attention by speaking out at public meetings. In December, 2011, I strategized and launched the second CVS petition (pledge to boycott if they moved their store), and introduced it to the Occupy Sebastopol volunteers, who circulated it for months at their town square table (Helen Shane was invited to join this action, but chose not to participate).

    The reporting, letters and columns that I voluntarily contributed appeared numerous times in the Press Democrat, Sonoma West, and on Wacco BB. They were read by thousands of West County citizens, and provided a legal and argumentative framework that significantly influenced the public debate, built public support for both lawsuits, and provided policy insight for our public officials. The hard-hitting columns and voter guide that I collaborated on and distributed helped to unseat one of the two Council boosters of the CVS Project—Kathleen Shaffer.

    I am currently running for office to unseat the other champion of the CVS project, Patrick Slayter, whose actual words quoted from the minutes in my post above speak a lot louder than Helen Shane’s attempts to whitewash his actions through her surprising endorsement of him.

    Like Helen Shane, I have raised money and led public interest lawsuits. I did this before I arrived in Sebastopol seven years ago, between 2005 and 2007, as I worked to help preserve the unique musical traditions of Washington Square Park, in New York City. What I did then is similar to the form of leadership that Helen Shane and Sebastopol Tomorrow provided in the CVS case. But it is not the only form of leadership. And there was nothing "fictional" about the effective and necessary work I contributed to the CVS conflict.

    A list of CVS related exposes that I uncovered, for the first time, and on which I reported extensively and exclusively, with documentation here on Wacco, include:

    The likely rigging of the faulty CVS traffic report by Sebastopol’s Planning Department (which found no "significant" traffic at the most congested corner in West County), and the hijacking of the legal authority vested in our elected Council by Planning Director Kenyon Webster:
    https://www.waccobb.net/forums/conte...-Chase-Project

    The first public assessment that the “Mitigated Negative Declaration” of the CVS project will soon legally require the banning of left turns from High Street heading either north or south:
    https://www.waccobb.net/forums/conte...g-the-CVS-Vote

    A legal analysis and 12 part post here on Wacco about CVS and its corporate "right to screw Sebastopol" by insisting upon a drive through window, again here at Wacco:
    https://www.waccobb.net/forums/showthread.php?102634-Behind-the-CVS-Lawsuit-A-Corporation-s-quot-Civil-Right-quot-to-Profit-by-Screwing-Sebastopol


    A Guest Commentary in the Press Democrat about Responsive Government and the our City Government standing up to CVS here
    https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/2...sponsive-local


    In my view, being an effective whistle blower, adding transparency to backroom dealings, articulating inconvenient political truths, and advocating for the public interest, are all important components of political activities, which have been based upon expanding transparency and what I call "responsive government."

    This transparency brings public awareness to an issue often decided upon in political back rooms, away from open debate. This awareness brings public pressure, and, with this pressure, action by public officials that serves the public interest.

    Leadership takes many forms. The form of leadership that I offer in my campaign goes by my slogan “Leadership for the Public Interest.” It is based upon transparency, creating a survey system to directly engage citizens on important issues, and transforming problems into community based solutions.

    This is what I did with the Restore Library Hours Campaign that helped bring about Measure M, which will restore library hours by solving the largest library funding crisis in county history.

    It is what I am running for office to help make happen, as we join together to make our City Council be part of a solution that reopens a thriving hospital--with an emergency room. I am working on this with numerous leaders, health experts, doctors, philanthropists and volunteers. We have organized, throughout our community, on a grassroots level, with leaders like Palm Drive District Board candidates to be the change we want to see, for our collective future. Palm Drive District Board candidates Dr. Richard Powers and Dennis Colthurst, who (unlike their opponent Jim Horn) are committed to making it happen.

    This is the type of solution-focused, caring-community-facilitating leadership that I have provided in the past and hope to provide more of, if I am elected to serve on Sebastopol's City Council.

    Last edited by Barry; 10-19-2014 at 01:33 PM.
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  7. TopTop #4
    Helen Shane's Avatar
    Helen Shane
     

    Re: In His Own Words: Patrick Slayter’s Championing of the CVS Project


    Quote Posted in reply to the post by Peacetown Jonathan: View Post
    Helen Shane’s post suggests that my claim to “having a leadership role in the challenge to CVS” is “simply his fiction.” ...
    Nay, Helen Shane’s post does not suggest; Mr. Greenberg mis-stated Helen Shane’s position. Ms. Shane flatly states that claim is “simply his fiction”.

    And more:

    As I responded to Jonathan earlier, I encouraged him to run for council before he showed his true colors. I came to realize that while Jonathan is very clever, he is not someone who functions well in a group setting.

    He was invited to and attended two meetings of Sebastopol Tomorrow. Each time, he immediately jumped in and monopolized the floor; he either did not recognize or ignored the group dynamic. The meeting chair repeatedly referred to the printed agenda, but Mr. Greenberg paid no mind to it. He simply “said his piece” then he left the meetings. The group discussed this and came to the conclusion that this is his M.O. and that he could not function in the collaborative way Sebastopol Tomorrow has operated, to great effect, since the mid-80’s. He was not invited back a third time, nor did he request an invitation, so we assumed he recognized that, too.

    Jonathan never had any input in the progress of the suit, which was filed in August 2011. There was never an amendment to the suit, other than to remove one name as a complainant. The fact is that the late John Kramer and I were the Committee for Small Town Sebastopol.

    What he did was speak at Council meetings and submit writings in publications. This may have been helpful in keeping up interest in the suit, as did the work of many others, but it doesn’t put him in the leadership. No other individual who participated at that level has had the gall to make the claim of being “in the leadership”. Whatever he thinks he turned up about the MND and the traffic study were known to us before his revelations and did not affect the lawsuit. These were the foundation and the basis for the original filing. As he stated, actions speak louder than words; he never contributed to the cost of the lawsuit filing or prosecution over the three years.

    I repeat what Pat Slayter described: “Saying something over and over does not make it true.” There’s another appropriate saying, which I will paraphrase: To keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results is to dream, not to do. Again, actions speak,,.

    Jonathan’s flashy expressions remind me of a part of the intro for the long-running and popular TV production Law and Order: “ripped from the headlines…”.It is colorful, passionate, dramatic and overblown. As were his “hard-hitting columns”, “extensive investigation”, “legal analysis and commentaries”. And on the 7th day he rested. Oh wait, that’s my comment.

    Surely Jonathan has enough bona fide claims to leadership and civic activity without making up more.

    I will not engage further in any colloquy with him. It’s not a good use of my time and energy.

    I support and endorse incumbents Patrick Slayter, Una Glass and Sarah Gurney as candidates for our City Council.
    Last edited by Barry; 10-18-2014 at 01:38 PM.
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  8. TopTop #5
    Peacetown Jonathan's Avatar
    Investigative Reporter

    Correcting the CVS Lawsuit Record for Helen Shane's Selective Memory

    It is clear from Helen Shane's response that her egocentric interpretation of what constitutes community leadership apples solely to those who join Sebastopol Tomorrow and helped finance their lawsuit.

    It is also clear that Helen Shane and I have different recollections about the Small Town Sebastopol lawsuit, as well as about the meeting that I attended with Sebastopol Tomorrow. The core difference is that she suggests that the investigative reporting and advocacy work I did regarding the faulty nature of the traffic report (that it measured rush hour traffic eastbound from High Street instead of Jewell Avenue as a means of rigging a "no significant traffic" determination), was irrelevant to her lawsuit because this information was part of the lawsuit from the beginning.

    My recollection is that the original Small Town Sebastopol lawsuit focused on the traffic report failing to take into account hypothetical future traffic from the unbuilt Barlow project. And that one of my legal contributions to the issue was investigating and establishing the failure of the report to correctly measure EXISTING traffic because Sebastopol's Planning Department provided the traffic consultant with a closer corner to measure from (High Street) than from where traffic actually began (Jewell Avenue).

    My assessment was that incorrectly measuring existing traffic was a more persuasive legal argument than the one Sebastopol Tomorrow was using--failing to measure hypothetical traffic from future projects. I recall reading the Sebastopol Tomorrow lawsuit for the reporting I did prior to the big 3 to 2 vote that overturned the City’s Design Review Board, and not learning about the High Street situation until I analyzed the traffic report independently.

    I then recall meeting the team of Sebastopol Tomorrow, in late August, 2012, and recommended amending the suit to include this fault of the traffic report, with the aim of creating a more persuasive legal argument. I did not, as Ms. Shane insultingly describes, attend a meeting to join the organization then “dominate” the agenda.

    I came across a three page legal advisory I wrote for the meeting. I attended the meeting not to join Sebastopol Tomorrow, as Ms. Shane says, but because I wanted to speak with the members of group about modifying their lawsuit. In my three page memo I prepared for the group, I wrote,

    “I need to leave at 6:15 this evening. Helen says I can circulate this memo and speak for five minutes about it; I can talk three minutes and take questions for a few. “


    The gist of my memo, and advice at that meeting, was that their lawsuit ought to focus on the High Street fix, as part of a pattern of collusion intended to circumvent a fair assessment and transparent public process.

    The group chose not to follow my suggestion about the broader focus. But Ms. Shane’s recollection of what I was doing at the meeting is simply a mean-spirited distortion of what the record show actually happened.

    Ms. Shane now says that Small Town Sebastopol never amended their lawsuit except to add a name to it. It would serve the historic record here if she provided the initial filing of the suit and the last version of it, as pdf’s, here on Wacco. I do not have a copy of ether of these documents, and cannot find them anywhere online.

    What is available, however, is an article about the lawsuit that was initially files in August, 2011, in the Press Democrat. This long article, which can be viewed here, goes into detail about the initial legal complaint and traffic report, but it never mentions the faulty measurement of existing traffic on Bodega Avenue. Instead, it reports

    “The suit contends that the pharmacy and bank branch will generate additional traffic which needs to be studied in detail. In addition, the suit contends that traffic study should include an analysis of traffic associated with two projects that are still in the proposal stage.
    Those are the Barlow Project, which calls for a farmers market, artist studios and children's playground, and the proposed Laguna Vista housing project, which calls for a 145 housing units.”

    Yet reading Helen’s recent article here on Wacco, three years later, about the history of the CVS fight, one finds that the failure to correctly measure existing traffic eastbound on Bodega Avenue was at the core of the lawsuit Helen now writes that the lawsuit charged that “the Mitigated Negative Declaration was invalid because it had been based on a flawed traffic impact study that did not consider impacts of The Barlow and Fanning to the south on Hwy 116.”

    Was the lawsuit changed based upon my research and advice? I think so. I have presented a citation that seems to support my recollection, along with a request that Ms. Shane adds to the public record of the history of the CVS lawsuit by making the original filing, as well as Small Town Sebastopol's final CVS filing, available as a pdf here on Wacco.
    Last edited by Barry; 10-19-2014 at 02:00 PM.
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  9. TopTop #6
    Helen Shane's Avatar
    Helen Shane
     

    Re: Correcting the CVS Lawsuit Record for Helen Shane's Selective Memory

    Well, I’ll make one more attempt to communicate regarding Greenberg’s role in the CVS lawsuit. I will address that and no other issue he may and probably will raise. I cannot spend hours at my computer, due to my temporary physical limitations, so this will have to suffice. Jonathan can fulminate to his heart’s content, but I will not further engage with him.

    The lawsuit was never amended except to remove the name of Kevin Dwan as complainant. Not to add a name, but to remove it.

    Wacco published the text of the complaint when it was filed.

    I maintain that he had no part in the outcome of the lawsuit. I cannot account for his recollection of events. I’ll have to rely on the reader’s judgment of whether Jonathan or I am to be believed.

    Good day to all. Good day to Jonathan. who, by the way, sure writes long. Some hold to the theory that a blizzard of words will serve to confound and convince. I do not subscribe to that theory.

    Quote Posted in reply to the post by Peacetown Jonathan: View Post
    It is clear from Helen Shane's response that her egocentric interpretation of what constitutes community leadership apples solely to those who join Sebastopol Tomorrow and helped finance their lawsuit.

    It is also clear that Helen Shane and I have different recollections about the Small Town Sebastopol lawsuit, as well as ...
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  11. TopTop #7
    peggykarp's Avatar
    peggykarp
     

    Re: In His Own Words: Patrick Slayter’s Championing of the CVS Project

    I won't speculate on why Helen Shane has devoted so much time and energy to discrediting Jonathan Greenberg. I'll only say that I have a very different opinion.

    In my many years of involvement in politics I have never met a more dedicated or more effective community activist than Jonathan Greenberg. Jonathan is an investigative journalist, and like others in that great tradition he has a passion for the truth, even if it makes some people in high places uncomfortable. He is also a very involved citizen of Sebastopol. As a father of two young boys, he really cares about restoring library hours and opening the Palm Drive emergency room. That's why he's donated thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours to these issues.

    Jonathan's meticulously researched cover article on the library cutbacks in last year's Bohemian brought the issue to the forefront of public attention. He created and circulated a petition that convinced the Board of Supervisors to reverse itself and allow the voters to decide if they wanted to fund more library hours. Without Jonathan's work Measure M would almost certainly not be on the ballot.

    In the wake of the Palm Drive Hospital closure Jonathan's research exposed the Palm Drive attorney's conflict of interest and the Board's probable violation of the Brown Act. This work, together with his unflagging support for the Palm Drive Foundation, have helped enormously in the effort to re-open the emergency room.

    It will be a minor miracle if Jonathan is elected to the City Council, given the array of Liberal Establishment folks who've closed ranks against him. But Sebastopol would benefit greatly from having him on the Council. Those interested in learning more about Jonathan and his candidacy can visit his website at greenbergforcouncil.com
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  13. TopTop #8
    John Eder's Avatar
    John Eder
    Former Seb City Council Member

    Re: In His Own Words: Patrick Slayter’s Championing of the CVS Project

    I have been to many community meetings produced by both the Palm Drive Health Care District and the Palm Drive Health Care Foundation involving the potential reopening of Palm Drive Hospital, including three last week alone.

    I have found it ironic who has been so conspicuous by their absence...
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  15. TopTop #9
    Helen Shane's Avatar
    Helen Shane
     

    Re: In His Own Words: Patrick Slayter’s Championing of the CVS Project

    To Peggy Karp I respond:

    “Jonathan's exposure of the faulty CVS traffic report was incorporated by Helen Shane into Small Town Sebastopol's lawsuit against CVS and provided perhaps the strongest legal argument against CVS in the suit."

    This is patently untrue and unfounded. I can only speak to my own experiences with Jonathan.

    See the rest of my comments posted earlier here.
    Last edited by Barry; 10-20-2014 at 03:39 PM.
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  17. TopTop #10
    peggykarp's Avatar
    peggykarp
     

    Re: In His Own Words: Patrick Slayter’s Championing of the CVS Project

    Helen Shane must have read my post in the couple of minutes between when I originally posted it and when I deleted this sentence. I took it out because I didn't want to include anything even remotely debatable that could detract from the main thrust of the post, namely, that Greenberg is a terrific investigative journalist and citizen activist who would be a big asset on the City Council. So even though I found his account of events around the CVS suit more convincing than Shane's, I removed the reference.

    Quote Posted in reply to the post by Helen Shane: View Post
    To Peggy Karp I respond:

    “Jonathan's exposure of the faulty CVS traffic report was incorporated by Helen Shane into Small Town Sebastopol's lawsuit against CVS and provided perhaps the strongest legal argument against CVS in the suit.”

    This is patently untrue and unfounded. I can only speak to my own experiences with Jonathan.

    See the rest of my comments posted earlier here.
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  19. TopTop #11
    nancypreb's Avatar
    nancypreb
     

    Re: In His Own Words: Patrick Slayter’s Championing of the CVS Project

    Quote Posted in reply to the post by Helen Shane: View Post
    Jonathan Greenberg is a very clever man. He has nominated himself as the progressive voice that the Council needs to fulfill its role of successful leadership of our community. He is very ambitious and enterprising; he does not hesitate to use hyperbole when pursuing his apparent need to aggrandize his talent and capabilities for service in the public arena.... (Pat Slayter) is not flamboyant or vociferous. He just does the job quietly and with dignity....I endorse and support Pat Slayter, Una Glass and Sarah Gurney for Sebastopol City Council. They can be trusted to govern our city and represent our entire community with honesty and firsthand knowledge of what’s been happening.
    First, let me start by saying that I know who I'm voting for, and it is for none of the reasons presented in any of this thread. I am personally not interested in anyone's endorsement because I find it useless in a small town like this, where it's not difficult to participate enough to know who's who and develop your own opinion. With that said, I do want to point out some qualities in leadership that I think are sorely lacking in this town.

    First, a truly balanced spectrum of representation, political thought, and hence, discourse. And in my opinion, the direction that we need to go is NOT more progressive. There is a huge constituency that is neglected and ignored on a regular basis because they don't have the luxury to make local politics their pastime. But they count and they are valuable. We need leaders who will stop pretending like they are listening to the great majority when the truth is, they are listening to the same few players, over and over again.

    Second, I would love to see someone flamboyant and vociferous playing in the sandbox. My favorite politicians have never been those who are "quiet." In fact, the more "quiet" they are, the more nervous I am about their agenda and motivations. Quietness tells me "the fix is in." I don't think that loud equals undignified or incapable of working with others. I don't think pushing hard against an already established status quo makes someone uncooperative. Our leaders need to have ideas, listen to the people, do research, support their findings, and fight vehemently with "compromise" as the end goal. Just because someone might shake up an already "good thing," does not make their presence or contribution inherently "bad."

    Third, ANYONE applying for a job, any job, "aggrandizes" their talents and qualifications, unless of course one's aim is to go down the proverbial ladder. Right now, it's everyone's job to present themselves and their talents in the greatest light possible; even, perhaps, greater than is current reality, because they need to be given the opportunity to demonstrate the breadth of their talents, thereby turning what is now hyperbole into reality.

    Lastly, the very last reason I would ever vote for someone is because they have "first-hand knowledge of what's been happening." That is exactly how you achieve a stagnant status quo. My grandfather use to say "Just because you've been doing it for 30 years doesn't mean you've been doing it "right!" In fact, the lack of options in this election is seriously troubling to me.

    In an article in the Gravenstein blogspot, where there is obvious and deliberate blame pointed at Kathleen Shaffer for the CVS debacle, there is a note that reads "(Note: the Vice Chair of the Commission, who co-chaired that meeting, is married to Kathleen Shaffer, one of the Council members who supported the project). If we're throwing stones at our leaders because their spouses participate in subsequent/complimentary roles within our leadership system, well then... isn't our council living in a glass house. I think there's a lot of reflection necessary for ALL our council members, and the moment they stop checking themselves and one another because it's all working so smoothly will be the very moment they need to be reflecting the MOST.

    With all that said.... I'm proudly voting for Patrick Slayter!!
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  21. TopTop #12
    Peacetown Jonathan's Avatar
    Investigative Reporter

    Correcting Helen Shane again and again asking her to post the original CVS lawsuit

    It is clear that Helen Shane believes that because I did not join and help finance Sebastopol Tomorrow's lawsuits effort, the hundreds of hours of work and advocacy I did around transparency and the CVS traffic report and the many hours of work that I did helping elect two new Council Members during the last election, largely because of their positions on the CVS project, do not constitute leadership. I have posted a partial list of links that represent evidence of the advocacy work that I did around the CVS issue. I agree that readers will interpret whether this constitutes being a leader on this issue or not as they choose.

    Despite three public requests I have made to Ms Shane to publish the original and amendment lawsuit, and despite my referenced reports that the original media coverage of the CVS lawsuit never mentioned the charges that traffic was measured from High Street instead of Jewel Avenue, Ms. Shane refuses to post the original, lawsuit, and continues to insist that my work had no impact on the legal work done on this issue.

    She writes:
    "Wacco published the text of the complaint when it was filed."


    I searched for the post Ms Shane refers to, with the text of the complaint, and only found this post, from August 11, 2011, when the lawsuit was filed:

    https://www.waccobb.net/forums/showt...149#post139149

    which I am copying below in blue. It seems that Ms. Shane does not correctly recall what was published in the public record. I cannot find the original lawsuit anywhere, and it would be helpful to creating a transparent and historic public record about this important lawsuit if the public had access to this.

    Readers may note that Ms. Shane's own post on the date she filed the Small Town Sebastopol lawsuit also does not mention the faulty measurement of existing eastbound traffic on Bodega Avenue, And that the history that Ms. Shane published recently refers to this as a core element of the lawsuit. Readers might wonder, as I do, when and how this became a central element of the Small Town Sebastopol lawsuit?

    So the only evidence we have other than our different recollections seems to support my recollection. On behalf of the public record, I again request Ms Shane and Small Town Sebastopol to add to this post the original Sebastopol Tomorrow lawsuit from August , 2011, and the final lawsuit that was on file at the time of the settlement. Or the link on Wacco of the original lawsuit that Ms Shane claims was posted, but which does not show up in any search on Wacco.

    Ms. Shane says she does not want to respond further, which is of course her prerogative, to attack me and then not respond to polite requests for evidence to support her attacks. She did not always feel this way about the voluntary work that I do on behalf of the public interest, as evidenced by this response this last January to my posted legal assessment of CVS' suit against Sebastopol over our drive through windows, earlier this year:, and the dozen follow ups i did about this. Instead, she wrote:

    "Jonathan's analysis and resulting statement of the right of our community to decide, within legal limits, the disposition of the use of the land within our town is, in my opinion, valid and defensible."


    This was before I became an advocate for reopening Palm Drive Hospital, and a leading critic of the decision to close it. What a difference standing up for the right of our community to have an emergency room makes!

    Here is a city of Helen Shane;s August 11 post informing the public about the CVS lawsuit. It did not contain a pdf of the lawsuit itself.


    Support the

    Challenge of Approval of the

    CVS/Chase Project

    by the Sebastopol City Council

    Flawed Mitigated Negative Declaration

    The Committee for Small Town Sebastopol has petitioned the Sonoma County Superior Court to order the City to either justify its declaration that this project has minimal environmental consequences or to require the developer to do an EIR. California environmental law (CEQA) requires projects expected to have significant environmental impact to be scrutinized with an Environmental Impact Report (EIR). An EIR proposes ways to mitigate significant negative impacts. An EIR reveals to the community pros and cons of proposed new development. The EIR also requires that there be stated alternatives to the project as proposed.

    The Committee for Small Town Sebastopol believes that, in the light of developments and proposed developments that will significantly impact levels of traffic, greenhouse gas emissions, and other environmental factors in our community, the City must require an adequate Environmental Impact Report of the CVS/Chase project so that the community can make an informed decision.

    John Kramer, Helen Shane, Jane Nielson

    for the Committee for Small Town Sebastopol



    If you concur, you may do one of three things:

    Respond to this message with your name as a supporter of

    Committee for Small Town Sebastopol

    and/or send check or money order to

    Committee for Small Town Sebastopol,c/o Shane 327 Neva Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472

    No cash by mail, please.

    https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article...astopol-group-

    to
    https://www.armstrongdev.com/california.asp / Once there, click "download our company brochure."
    Quote Posted in reply to the post by Helen Shane: View Post
    To Peggy Karp I respond: ...
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  22. TopTop #13
    Barry's Avatar
    Barry
    Founder & Moderator

    Re: In His Own Words: Patrick Slayter’s Championing of the CVS Project

    Helen sent me this copy of the lawsuit to post on her behalf. I asked her if there was another version and she replied:

    "There is no "other version". The only thing that was changed was to remove Kevin Dwan as complainant. There were several notices of changes of attorneys, but that's all. I don't know how one proves a negative, do you? "

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  24. TopTop #14
    Peacetown Jonathan's Avatar
    Investigative Reporter

    Documentation reveals lawsuit did NOT mention High St though Shane's history says it did

    I hope that by finally providing the actual lawsuit, Helen Shane will put to rest her misleading, incorrect and mysterious attacks on my reputation and the leadership role I spent hundreds of hours performing investigating, reporting, and advocating for transparency, responsive government, and an accurate traffic report about the most congested corner in our city.

    To those following this, please recall that Ms. Shane's contention has been that it was not my research and reporting here on Wacco that revealed the most essential faults in the traffic report, but that this was something that Small Town Sebastopol stated in their lawsuit from the beginning; that this was "nothing new." Here is what she wrote in an article this month about the history of the lawsuit here on Wacco: I have added the emphasis in red:

    "On August, 2011, we formed the group “Committee for Small Town Sebastopol” and sued the CVS proponents, charging that the Mitigated Negative Declaration was invalid because it had been based on a flawed traffic impact study that did not consider impacts of The Barlow or the traffic beyond High St. to the west, and Fanning to the south on Hwy 116."

    I just read the lawsuit twice over again. I urge readers to read it for themselves, and see whether it mentions the inaccurate measurement of existing traffic beyond High Street. It does not. As I correctly recalled in my original posts about it, the lawsuit did not bring this up. But my independent voluntary research did. Whether it was added to the lawsuit, or simply Ms. Shane's recent characterization of her own lawsuit, we cannot know unless she chooses to provide the final version of the lawsuit. What is clear is that this core fault did not exist anywhere until I revealed it. That it became an important part of my advocacy, and our community advocacy, about the CVS project. I characterize this as leadership for the public interest.

    Helen Shane, and her colleagues at Sebastopol Tomorrow, have every right to challenge this characterization, and call me names, as they have apparently, for mysterious reasons, chosen to do.

    But now that the facts are present, I again make a public request that Ms. Shane apologize for maligning me and spreading false information through our community about my record, and the public record of the CVS lawsuit.
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  26. TopTop #15
    Helen Shane's Avatar
    Helen Shane
     

    Re: Documentation reveals lawsuit did NOT mention High St though Shane's history says it d

    All the CEQA lawsuit had to say was that CEQA had been violated because the Mitigated Negative Declaration that had been issued was based on a flawed traffic study.

    John Kramer and I, and a number of others had analyzed the traffic report and come up with pretty much the same conclusions. That’s what led us to file the suit.

    The actual deficiencies in the traffic report would have been detailed in the brief that would have been offered to the court if we’d ever gotten that far. We did not. We settled. Enough said.
    Last edited by Barry; 10-23-2014 at 01:10 PM.
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  27. TopTop #16
    Peacetown Jonathan's Avatar
    Investigative Reporter

    Greenberg To District Board: Stop Hindering and Start Helping Emergency Room Reopening

    Thank you John Eder for the opportunity to share one of the many public comments I made to the District Board during public meetings about reopening an emergency room at Palm Drive. Here is what I think of this, in my own words:



    Quote Posted in reply to the post by John Eder: View Post
    I have been to many community meetings produced by both the Palm Drive Health Care District and the Palm Drive Health Care Foundation involving the potential reopening of Palm Drive Hospital, including three last week alone.

    I have found it ironic who has been so conspicuous by their absence...
    Last edited by Barry; 10-23-2014 at 12:52 PM.
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  28. TopTop #17

    I don't get it...

    Jonathan Greenberg has been screaming about the closure of Palm Drive Hospital. He seems to be using it as a platform to run on. He says that his investigative reporting has "re-shaped the argument" re: re-opening our hospital.

    Okay. If elected to the City Council of Sebastopol, what's he going to do about it? It is, in no way, shape or form within the prevue of the City Council. Neither is Measure M. Yet both issues are printed on his yard signs.
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  30. TopTop #18
    Peacetown Jonathan's Avatar
    Investigative Reporter

    Please read my five point plan for Council's ACTIVE role in hospital reopening

    Glad that you asked that...

    here is the hospital part of my answer....

    https://www.waccobb.net/forums/showt...549#post184549

    Quote Posted in reply to the post by eeeeeeow: View Post
    Jonathan Greenberg has been screaming about the closure of Palm Drive Hospital. He seems to be using it as a platform to run on. He says that his investigative reporting has "re-shaped the argument" re: re-opening our hospital.

    Okay. If elected to the City Council of Sebastopol, what's he going to do about it? It is, in no way, shape or form within the prevue of the City Council. Neither is Measure M. Yet both issues are printed on his yard signs.
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