The Simpleminded Mockingbird: Candidate Phil Simmons has a website

Dan Romero 1:52 pm on Saturday, May 19, 2012 “Glenn, You do not know me, you are not a friend of mine….I am not the Truth, you simple minded mockingbird.”

 The Simpleminded Mockingbird

 #25 in a series of occasional reports

 The New Phil Simmons Website:

Hello.    I am passing on to you an email I received from council candidate Phil Simmons.    The purpose of the email, I guess, was to announce Phil’s new website:    philsimmons.net

 I know Phil, I consider him to be a good friend, he supports the policies I support, I’m confident he’s an ethical person, and I will vote for him.    If that sounds like a tepid endorsement, that caution comes of my having been badly burned in supporting the candidacies of Gérard Boulanger, Bill Wilkins and, worst of all, Dan Romero, in the June 2011 recall election.    I’m much more hesitant now in recommending that people vote for candidates who have never held elective office.    But, Phil has served the community in other ways, including the Ad Hoc Legal Committee, and from all reports, his performance there has been impressive.    I’ve read his website…nothing new for me there, I do know Phil…and I agree with 98% of it.   (I’m less enthusiastic than he about declaring Parks & Rec to be a priority while our police department is understaffed.    For me, it’s public safety first, and then the rest.   Otherwise, though, all of Phil’s positions are the positions that Hercules needs if it is to have a future.    But as for Parks & Rec:  with or without implementation of Phil's plans for a thriving future Hercules, we will still be broke in 2013, the council will still have to do triage, and at some point someone has to decide whether subsidizing more programs at Fun & Games is worth the loss of an officer.)    Phil has all the right policies, and he has demonstrated his commitment to those policies, not just by posting statements on a website, but by his several years of community activism.

 And then there’s the icing on the cake:    of all the candidates for city council in November, Phil is the one Dan Romero seems to hate the most, and the one whom Dan seems to be devoting the most effort to destroying.    There can be no higher endorsement than holding top spot on Dan's enemies list.    It's a long list.    I may be on there, somewhere, but I doubt that I can claim the honor of being #1.    But maybe after a few more mockingbird articles...

I wish that I could be wildly enthusiastic about Phil, and say that he will be the best politician since Lincoln and FDR, but those two had a chance to prove themselves, and Phil hasn't.    What I can say, with absolute certainty, is that romangerokins have ALL got to be voted out.    Voting Phil in gets one of those three out.    If Phil might not be the new George Washington, he will nonetheless be a good councilmember, and his policies are the policies we need.    So long as Dan Romero is no longer on the council and in a position to coerce Phil into becoming the new Boulanger (d'accord on anything Mayor Stalin wants), electing Phil would definitely be a good thing.    Voting Stalin out would be an important concomitant

 In coming weeks, I’ll probably have similar short pieces on Sherry McCoy and Hector Rubio.   Those three, Simmons & McCoy & Rubio, appear to be the best choices to replace boulerokins in November.

 Here is the email:

From:

Phil Simmons (philipsimmons@yahoo.com)

Sent:

Thu 8/09/12 12:16 PM

To:

Phil Simmons (philipsimmons@yahoo.com)

As you know I am running for Hercules City Council. Please take a few minutes to review my newly launched website.

www.philsimmons.net

 I have the following serious concerns that I would like to bring to your attention.

 The following subjects have been discussed for the past couple of days and for the past few months. The next real discussion will begin on August 28th. at the next city council meeting.

 The city manager and the majority of the city council have an anti new urbanism development plan in the works.

        Apartments with 350 units on Parcel C

        Sycamore North will have 140-150 unit apartments ... up from 96 condos

• 40 single family homes on Victoria Crescent.
• A PSA tying up Sycamore Crossing for a grocery store on a property with a deed restriction against a grocery store.
• The potential for another 100 units will be the next thing to happen on Sycamore Crossing.

This week the city manager report discussed a plan to sell the Hercules corporate yard and suggested that residential developers already have their eye on it.

More housing? Will it be 50 single family homes or another 350 unit apartment complex?

Not one bit of retail or commercial development is being discussed in any of these plans. 

Add this to the already planned 1380 residential units in the waterfront development and we are looking at possibly 2100 - 2200 new homes with little to no new tax revenue for the city of Hercules. This will result in roughly another 6000 - 8000 residents with little, if any way, to support the new demand on city services; no additional schools, no additional open space, no additional parks, no additional private business enterprise. We are looking at virtually every piece of land being sold with no future potential for commercial or retail development. 

If you consider this situation to be a bad idea, please talk to your neighbors and friends and spread the word that once again that Hercules is in trouble.

When I win a seat on the Hercules city council, I will do everything I can to steer this out of control train back onto the tracks.

Your help would be appreciated.

And please share this email with anyone in town that you may have in your email list. 

And, please visit my campaign website.  Your comments and feedback are appreciated.

Phil Simmons

Candidate for Hercules City Council

philsimmons.net