Pinocchio Chronicles 13: Carlsbad, the County, and the FAA, #301

Have you seen Supervisor Jim Desmond’s September 13, 2021 email invitation? He says:

“There is nothing more American than speaking up at a government meeting. It truly means a lot when someone is willing to come down to the Board of Supervisors meeting, prepare a speech and voice their opinion. Exercise your rights every chance you get, come to a Board of Supervisors meeting, or City Council meeting, and speak up?”

Is Supervisor Desmond’s offer sincere? Here’s how to find out.

The Board of Supervisor and Carlsbad City Council Meeting History

According to the Urban Dictionary, the expression “Treat em like a mushroom means: Concealing information from someone. Keeping someone uninformed and happy. Don’t tell them anything. Don’t allude to anything.”

Or as an LAPD officer, who retired to start a second career, more colorfully once told me: Treat em like a mushroom means: feed em a bunch of S--- and keep them in the dark.

If you’ve attended Carlsbad City Council meetings or County Board of Supervisors meetings in the last five years, you know the expression fits. Here is what you likely heard and saw.

• You have 3 minutes to speak.
• Rarely will council members or supervisors answer any substantive questions.
• Rarely will they ask a staff (the persons who truly understand the issues) to answer substantive questions.
• Often they will float a flim-flam excuse not to answer you: Such as, the State Brown Act prevents us from discussing matters not on the meeting agenda. Or: We're not required to answer questions.

After the recent changes in council members and supervisors, the meetings have become a tad more transparent. But a quantum leap is still needed.

Test Supervisor Desmond and Other Council Members and Supervisors

So, yes, please do accept Supervisor Desmond’s offer. Speak at meetings. Ask for answers. And if the members plead a Brown Act bar, take one of two approaches. If you are speaking on an existing agenda item, don’t accept that excuse. The members have already prepared for the meeting as has the staff. So if they don’t want to answer questions, they do have an agenda – theirs, not yours.

If you are speaking on a public session item, ask the members to commit to placing the item on the next agenda with a staff report. Ask at the meeting for the council member or supervisor representing your district to make a motion supporting you. If no one seconds the motion (as will usually happen), you have a record.

If the City Attorney or County Counsel raises an objection, ask for a supporting case citation – to be produced at the next meeting. Keep them honest.

Keep a running, chronological table of the dates, issues, and council and supervisor responses to you. Use it at the next election to show whether members have truly been responsive to the community.

And when you raise a matter at a meeting, don’t drop it. Raise it at every meeting you attend thereafter at the public comment portion of the meeting. Repeat the history. Put a bullseye on their chests.

Happy Hunting !!!!!!!!!!