City Council Election

[Helen Shane]

Please join me and vote for
Una Glass
Sarah Gurney
Patrick Slayter
for Sebastopol City Council

They are are gutsy, knowledgeable and battle tested. They can be trusted to govern our city and represent our entire community with honesty and forthrightness.

They 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.

They have grown into a cooperative Council, who through exchange of ideas during Council meetings to working on sub-committees together to further our goals.

Sarah and Patrick are working together on the development of two downtown sites: the large parcel immediately east of the Plaza, and the large parcel almost totally city owned parcel immediately south of Round Table pizza, etc.

As a group, they oversee and participate in maintaining a balanced budget.

The General Plan update is underway, under their guidance, as are new Design Review criteria,

Pat brings to the mix his expertise as an architect; he served on the Sebastopol Planning Commission and Sebastopol Business Outreach Committee as well as being a founding member of BikeWalk Sebastopol and the Sebastopol Entrepreneur’s Project. He is a member of the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, sits on their Advisory Board, and volunteers with the Sonoma Humane Society.

Sarah’s legal and mediation skills are frequently brought into play as a Councilperson. She is a proven leader; represented Sebastopol on the Sebastopol Health Action 2020, and assisted in obtaining a $25,000 grant to help our youth and families. She is deeply involved with the planning of our downtown. She’s chaired the Sonoma County Transportation Authority and the Regional Climate Protection Authority. She’s the California State Senate Appointee to the California Coastal Commission for our area. She knows the town and the community well.

Una, while new to the Council is a long time Sebastopol resident. She has experience as CEO of the non-profit Coastwalk. She’s been a small business owner, which honed her financial knowhow. In her job as aide to former 5^th district supervisor Mike Reilly she developed local and statewide contacts that all add to the Council’s basket of resources.

They all have unimpeachable integrity that we can count on.
We can put our trust in them.
Please join me.

Vote for Glass, Gurney and Slayter
for the experience, honesty and integrity
they bring to the City Council.

[Michael Anthony]

Helen: do you have anything to say about the integrity of those persons who created, endorsed, and paid for the Jonathan Greenberg character assassination mailer? In an entire thread on this forum titled Anti-Greeberg Mailer, only one of the mailer's signatories showed integrity enough to stand up and be accountable.

They all have unimpeachable integrity that we can count on.

[Helen Shane]

Sorry, Michael. I don't buy your assessment of the mailer as character assassination. It was truth telling. No one has said Jonathan is a bad person. What we've been saying is that he embroiders, exaggerates, takes credit for others' work. To ignore such proclamations is to validate them. That is not the option of people who care about what goes on in our community. Jonathan was characterized, given these actions, as being Confused, Inexperienced, Unqualified. I stand on it. I think it was well founded and needed to be done.

Helen: do you have anything to say about the integrity of those persons who created, endorsed, and paid for the Jonathan Greenberg character assassination mailer? In an entire thread on this forum titled Anti-Greeberg Mailer, only one of the mailer's signatories showed integrity enough to stand up and be accountable.

[Michael Anthony]

Thank you for standing up and being accountable for your part in the Anti-Greenberg mailer. Regardless of whether we agree that it was a character assassination mailer or not; in my opinion it was a base, mean spirited, and unenlightened response that should never be the "option of people who care about what goes on in our community."

That is not the option of people who care about what goes on in our community.

[Helen Shane]

Michael - I've always been clear, upstanding and accountable in my opposition to Jonathan since his ballot statement, fraught with mis-statements and hyperbole was published. As have others. As to the mailer, everyone can make their own evaluation on the nature of it. Perhaps the fact that Jonathan's initial salvo criticized another candidate. Did that offend you? Truthfulness and fair criticism have a role in every community, in every social situation. While you obviously took umbrage with the mailer, that is your right and perhaps even responsibility to speak up, so it is my right, and the manner in which I do it is my own. Cheers. Helen Shane

Thank you for standing up and being accountable for your part in the Anti-Greenberg mailer. Regardless of whether we agree that it was a character assassination mailer or not; in my opinion it was a base, mean spirited, and unenlightened response that should never be the "option of people who care about what goes on in our community."

[Jude Iam]

I first saw the mailer against Jonathan last night and was shocked and saddened when reading the names on it. So this was your reply to the "first salvo" - a salvo of your own, justified by your collective fire... Making big points about how the council had no way to influence the hospital's opening - YET endorsing JIM HORN!?!
All incumbents hanging together against a candidate who's unafraid to make changes and challenge comfortable ruts- like buying fossil fuel vehicles and remain uninvolved in extending library hours... yuk.
'Poitics' is clearly evident on all levels, including here in our town.
Personally, I would welcome a more fearless, fresh, Gutsy approach to what goes on in Sebastopol.
If not here, where?
If not now, when?
If not us, who?
And the wound of negative actions like that card are truly PAINFUL to have been dealt - and I, and many, many others feel that and welcome a healing apology to be able to go on and have that 'bullet' removed from our mind/heart each time we shall encounter and interact with EACH ENDORSOR on that card.
Likely, not.
The right thing? Search your soul.
Judith Iam

Michael - I've always been clear, upstanding and accountable in my opposition to Jonathan since his ballot statement, fraught with mis-statements and hyperbole was published. As have others. As to the mailer, everyone can make their own evaluation on the nature of it. Perhaps the fact that Jonathan's initial salvo criticized another candidate. Did that offend you? Truthfulness and fair criticism have a role in every community, in every social situation. While you obviously took umbrage with the mailer, that is your right and perhaps even responsibility to speak up, so it is my right, and the manner in which I do it is my own. Cheers. Helen Shane

[Michael Anthony]

Helen:

After re-reading Jonathan's ballot statement, I did not find anything that could be deemed a "first salvo" and warrant such a harsh response. I also re-read the Anti-Greenberg mailer that you so strongly endorse and I could not find a single positive word written thereupon it.

If you are familiar with the Japanese frozen water crystal study by Dr. Emoto; think about wrapping a bottle of water with that wholly negative mailer and then looking at the frozen crystals under a microscope. I hypothesize that the crystals will be among the ugliest ever studied.

Cheers back at you [but don't drink the mailer water]: Michael

[Barry]

Michael - I've always been clear, upstanding and accountable in my opposition to Jonathan since his ballot statement, fraught with mis-statements and hyperbole was published. As have others....

Here is Jonathan's ballot statement:

I would like to serve as your Councilmember to help our city practice “responsive government,” focused on the public interest. As a parent of children in Sebastopol public schools, I feel that our government should model green, progressive, compassionate community values. I have provided leadership in community-focused campaigns, including challenging CVS and its erroneous traffic study, removing noisy, polluting leaf blowers from our public parks and senior housing at Burbank Heights, and the effort to re-open Palm Drive Hospital and its life-saving emergency room. Thousands of people signed the Restore LibraryHours.org petitions I originated, and libraries should soon be re-opened Mondays and evenings.


I am an award-winning investigative journalist and Internet entrepreneur (GreenbergForCouncil.com). My fourth business, Progressive Source, has been a Sebastopol-based public interest communications company for the past six years. Past public service includes serving as New York City Council’s Policy Director for Lower Manhattan Redevelopment after 9-11.

If elected, I will help re-open Palm Drive, and ensure that a CVS situation not be repeated. I will find funding to build bike lanes and provide a transparent “Gov 2.0” online system to empower citizens to provide your input on important decisions.

I don't see mis-statements and hyperbole here. If you think that the only thing that qualifies as leadership on challenging CVS is being part of your lawsuit, I think most people would disagree with that.

As to the mailer, everyone can make their own evaluation on the nature of it. Perhaps the fact that Jonathan's initial salvo criticized another candidate. Did that offend you?...

Here's Jonathan's "initial salvo":

The worst thing I see here is characterizing Patrick's vote of support for the CVS traffic report as "championing". You think that justified the mean spirited anti-Greenberg mailer?

[Helen Shane]

In his walk piece, Jonathan's characterization is that Pat Slayter was "championing" the CVS traffic report. That is Jonathan's opinion. Patrick, along with three other council members, (only Sarah Gurney voted no) approved the Mitigated Negative Declaration that allowed CVS to proceed with its application. That is not exactly "championing".

When one wishes to hype one's case in a vacuum, that's ok. But when one hypes for the purpose of depriving another of the opportunity to serve, one must be prepared for objections.

The mailer stated that Jonathan's M.O. is to exaggerate his participation in various issues. And no, I don't think that the Small Town Sebastopol suit was the only effort to thwart the CVS project. It was, however, the major one. His walk piece stated, "Jonathan uncovered, wrote about, and advocated against these errors." I think this was to intimate that his actions bore much more weight than they did.

He did, as I said earlier, speak at meetings and did some writing about it, but many did. I repeat that he had absolutely nothing to do with the conduct of the lawsuit. The suit was filed on August 8, 2011; it did not go into detail regarding the traffic study. It did not use Jonathan's analysis of the traffic report. A number of us did such an analysis that would have been in the brief if the case ever gone to court. It did not. That it affected the suit was simply not true. Nor was it ever amended. The suit is in the settlement phase now.

Look, I've said all this before. Please go back into the archives of this subject, if you wish. This is my last response regarding the mailer or almost any other aspect of the election or its results.

Adios. Helen Shane

[Barry]

Look, I've said all this before. Please go back into the archives of this subject, if you wish. This is my last response regarding the mailer or almost any other aspect of the election or its results.

Adios. Helen Shane

Thanks for your participation (and dare I say, leadership ), Helen, here, out there, and over the years!

[haammer]

"Jonathan believes he can wave a magic wand"
Does he believe that? Did he mention that at some point?

You strongly dislike Jonathan for whatever reason, and that intense dislike has overruled your judgement.

Farmer Dan's thread has lots more on this topic:
https://www.waccobb.net/forums/showt...026#post185026