The Candidates' Question & Answer Session

About that candidate Q&A

Occasional Report No. 38

Yesterday, the seven candidates were subjected to questioning from the League of Women Voters, in a proceeding arranged by Herculean Glenna Philips (No relation.).    This affair could have been a major contributor to the electorate’s understanding of the candidates and the issues…could have been, if only the quasi-totality of the population had not chosen to not attend.    Ms. Philips advises me that rebroadcasts can be seen on cable Channel 28, AT&T Channel 99, and on the city’s website.    It’s not on the website yet (or, if it is, its location eludes me), but it’s worth waiting for, and it’s worth watching.    Btw, Glenna deserves a lot of credit for successfully carrying out a very worthwhile endeavor.

 

I didn’t take notes, so I cannot report in detail on what was said.    I can definitely say, though, that the Biggest Losers were Gérard Boulanger and Bill Wilkins.    In council sessions, Gérard has shown himself to be clueless, saying nothing more profound than that he “echoes” the prior speaker, or asking off-the-wall questions which indicate that he was paying attention in the meeting, but was not prepared for it.     I particularly recommend his nonresponse to several questions on transparency, in which he chose to answer some other questions which no one had posed, but saying essentially nothing on transparency.   Gérard was true to airhead form.  Billkins was angry and rambling and wrong.

 

Dan…perhaps I’m biased.    He DID tell a lie or two, as when he claimed he had been the advocate of the community for ten years.    His community advocacy goes back to Franklin Canyon and Measure M, and that was indeed almost ten years ago (2003).    That’s when I first met him, that’s when I became convinced of his commitment to serving the community.    And then, I sorta dropped out of Hercules politics, until the Oliva scandals were revealed in October 2010; and there was Dan, at every council session, swinging away at Evil Oliva, and Oliva’s awful council, composed of one Bent Balico and four Worthless Nothings…a group very much deserving of Dan’s punches.     Dan looked heroic, and I fell back into supporting him.    What I did not know then was that he was NOT constantly advocating for the public for ten years, or nine.     Like me, Dan sorta dropped out.    He got back into it when an issue arose which affected his family directly.   And now that HE is the mayor, he is in no mood to put up with another Dan Romero, another outspoken and fervent advocate for the community (like Phil Simmons, for example; like Toni Leance, for another).    Now that he is the mayor, democracy is trampled, free speech is strangled, transparency is painted black, community involvement in decision making is relegated to "let The Village have their say", and then shut up and get out of the way.

 

Dan is an awful autocrat of a mayor, and I made a huge mistake in supporting him, for so long as I did support him.    I made a mistake which I hope won’t be repeated by others in the upcoming election.    But I can’t say that he did as poorly in the question session as did Gérard and Billkins.   Dan revealed his true, bullying, obstinate, public-opinion-disdaining self; and, I guess, there is a constituency for that.

 

Getting back to transparency:    on this issue, the other Bill, the Kelly one, did surprisingly well.    I realize that he didn’t suddenly discover honesty and transparency and open government last night, that he has been consistent in pushing this issue.    Last night, his advocacy of these issues was clear and cogent and strong.    He looked good, better than I had expected.    He was even able to handle the hardball question which some clever spectator submitted:    does he support honesty?   He does.

 

Sherry McCoy was great.    I am a strong supporter of Sherry, so I didn’t need to hear her oratory in order to be convinced, but her oratory was indeed convincing.    Precise, passionate (in flashes), wise and correct.    Unlike Dan's claim of ten years of public advocacy, everything Sherry said was true.    She has tremendous experience from the Planning Commission.   She is the best of the seven candidates, and I sure hope that enough people pay enough attention to what she says and what she has done…and elect her.   I’m pretty confident that a Mayor McCoy would be a very good thing for Hercules…as confident as I am that another round of Mayor Romero would be a disaster.

 

I’m also a supporter of Hector, and that support is becoming stronger with every conversation I have with him.   I love Hector’s personality:    quiet and sober and intelligent and unassuming and nonaggressive and knowledgable.    He is the kind of person with whom I think most of us would wish to spend time.    He is not the kind of person who can win a staged debate with flash.    Hector, I think, would be one of the best choices for the new council.    He is smart, very smart; he is well-informed; he has a very good grasp on the city’s finances, and that will likely be one of the most important qualifications (in addition to advocacy of transparency, democracy and community participation, of which I don’t think he has talked a lot) for the coming council.   I hope that voters will overlook Hector’s lack of stagecraft glitz and flash, and focus on his qualifications, and on what I believe to be the character of the man.   (I don’t know him nearly well enough to VOUCH for his character, but I have a good feeling about him.)

 

And, of course, I’m a supporter of Phil.    Phil and I go back to the early days of the recall, and I consider him to be a good friend.    He did well in the question session, he has tons of experience, he has lots of creative ideas, and a long record of involvement in the community.     You should talk to him:   phil2012@philsimmons.net

 

Returning to Bill Kelly:    he was great last night, and I applaud his advocacy of the issues which are most important to me:   transparent government, honesty, democratic government, consultation with the community before taking decisions and paying heed to the will of the community.    Bill says all of the right things, and he said them well last night...but I really don't know him very well, and I am really afraid that he is too close to Dan Romero.    My idea of a nightmare is a council which has both Dan Romero and Bill Kelly.   If we could be confident that Dan will lose, I'd consider voting for Bill; we can't be confident of that, so I will be voting for McCoy, Rubio and Simmons.    I wish Bill (Kelly) well, but I'm voting for Phil.

 

The candidates are accessible, and ( at least as to the challengers) eager to talk to you.    (I’m much less certain that that is true of Angry Bill Wilkins, who never seems to be in the mood to listen to anyone; I’m not so certain that is true of Dan Romero, since [so far as I can tell] he didn’t even bother to put up a website.    I’ll bet Gérard would like to talk to you, though:    this guy can charm you into believing anything.    I speak as an earlier victim of that charm.)

 

Sherry, Hector, Phil, and Bill Kelly are indeed very accessible, and I recommend that you visit their websites to learn about their platforms and experience, and to get their email addresses, so that you can contact them and talk to them personally.    If any of you distribution list-subscriber folk would like to know how to contact any of them, please contact me, and I’ll give you their email addresses.

 

Here are their websites:

GoodBill:    www.electbillkelly.com
Hector: sites.google.com/site/rubioforcitycouncil
Phil: www.philsimmons.net  
Sherry: sites.google.com/site/mccoyforherculescitycouncil

 
The Recall Three can be found at:

AngryBill:    sites.google.com/site/wilkinsforhercules
Dan:    if any of you can find his site, please do let me know.    I have found no evidence of its existence.
Gérard: sites.google.com/site/boulanger4hercules
 
Gérard’s site is the most entertaining.     For a good time, visit his “Accomplishments” page, https://sites.google.com/site/boulanger4hercules/council-accomplishments.     What he lists is “What has been done under this council” (some of which is untrue, most of which is spin), and not “What has been accomplished by Gérard Boulanger”, a list which could be summed up by a silent pause.
 
You are all welcome, very welcome, to contact me for information about the candidates and the issues, or for ways to get such information.    Our best defense, and our only hope, is an informed electorate.    This is the last chance for our battered city to get it right.    If an ignorant electorate reinstalls the current triumvirate, we are doomed.
 
Have a nice day.