While signatures are counted, Councilmen attack residents

Congratulations to the NoPowerPlant team! 

On Wednesday NoPowerPlant.com leaders submitted 9,487 signature to the City Election Official, Eleanor Manzano.  Over 120 volunteers collected those signatures in just 40 days... a phenominal effort.  The support of the public was amazing.  Preparations for signature turn-in went until 3:30AM Wednesday morning.  And with very little rest, the NPP team showed up at City Hall to submit box after box of petition books. 

The Redondo Beach City Clerk team of Eleanor, Emily and Ariana spent most of Wednesday on the onerous task of reviewing the petition and counting signatures and then reverifying the counts.  Melanie Cohen, Sheri Patterson and Lezlie Campeggi, despite virtually zero sleep, observed the whole process...what troopers!

Again, congratulations and thanks to NPP, the signature gatherers and the signers!  Redondo owes you all a debt of gratitude.  We are one step closer to a future with no blighting polluting power plant on our waterfront!

The County Resgistrar's Office will now validate the signatures to determine how many signatures are valid.  The initiative needs just under 6,000 valid signatures of Redondo Beach voters to qualify for the ballot.

While all this was going on, two of our Council were doing the bidding of AES, by attacking the character of Councilman Brand and the NPP group.  Councilman Diels called the NPP mailer "fraud".  And Councilman Aspel called it a "lie" and threatened to go to the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC).  They make the ludicrous claim that the mailer misrepresents Congressman Waxman's opposition to the new power plant.  Congressman Waxman crafted his opposition press release as a result of discussions with Councilman Brand.   Brand had sent the Congressman a copy of the mailer.  Congressman Waxman has not made the accusations that Diels and Aspel have.  In fact, Congressman Waxman acknowledged he knew Brand and NPP were intending to use the quote from his press release and that he had seen the mailer.

Aspel and Diels have now taken their personal attacks on Councilman Brand and power plant opponents to a new level with this latest attack.  They are furious that residents have taken the initiative to fight the power plant on their own and so they lash out like frustrated children with desperate namecalling and threats.

I hope Aspel and Diels do go to the FPPC.  NPP and Brand have all the source data for everything in the NPP mailer.  The representations in the mailer are accurate.  I am confident the FPPC would find no fault with the mailer.  

It is a shame that Aspel and Diels have not leveled the same amount of scrutiny on the misleading AES mailer.  It is also ironic that Diels' letter to Waxman is full of inaccuracies and mischaracterizations assaulting the character, integrity, and the actions of residents opposing the power plant.

What is most telling here though is that Aspel and Diels spend more time attacking residents who oppose the power plant, than they do taking any action themselves to oppose the power plant.  Their actions and inactions speak louder than their words.

Again, hats off to those who have chosen to stick their necks out, suffering  character attacks from our own council and threats from AES, to do what is right for generations to come in Redondo.  The right path is rarely the easy path.  But the end result in this case is well worth the trials and tribulations.