Sour Grapes – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Marianne Fong

The following letter to the editor was submitted to the El Segundo Herald newspaper on Thursday, July 12, 2012 well before their 12:00 noon Thursday deadline, and it meets their 250-word limit including the title.

However, El Segundo Herald CEO and President Heidi Maerker arbitrarily rejected this letter without explanation. Maerker has arbitrarily rejected other letters without explanation since the April 10, 2012 city election, including letters that had nothing to do with the election.

There are a number of very interesting possible explanations for this strange behavior, which will be discussed in a future post.

Visit the Public Safety Project web site frequently for important information updates you will not get from the El Segundo Herald or other news sources.

Sour Grapes

Scott Houston’s letter (7/5/12, “Foxes Guarding Henhouse?”) was full of falsehoods, just like his city council campaign.

Houston wrote, “Since when is the Mayor executing agreements on behalf of our City? I thought that was the job of the City Manager.” As a two-time city council candidate (and loser), Houston should know the city council votes to approve ordinances, resolutions, contracts, and agreements, and the mayor signs them.

Houston wrote, “Where is the outrage that was expressed when our previous City Manager was acting as chief negotiator with the employee labor groups last year? … no one paying attention to what’s going on at City Hall. I guess the foxes are guarding the henhouse.”

Had Houston been paying attention, he would know Mike Robbins submitted a written Public Communication for the 5/1/12 council meeting citing SIX reasons why the city manager should not be negotiating city employee union contracts. It has been posted on the city web site (elsegundo.org) since 4/30/12, under agendas.

Houston never criticized the unaffordable firefighter and police union contracts with big raises that Doug Willmore offered to the unions before letting the city council and the public see them.

Houston represents the greedy firefighter and police unions that will eventually bankrupt our city. If Houston had his way, Measure P would have become law without an election, and two city taxes would have been raised.

The man doth protest too much, methinks. A more appropriate fox reference is the fox and the sour grapes.

Marianne Fong

References:

PDF file named “2012-05-01, CC Agenda PACKET, 5PM Session, ITEM #1, Communications.pdf” containing the “Council Meeting Agenda Packet 05-01-12 – 5pm Session – Item #1 – Communications” email from Michael D. Robbins, on the official City of El Segundo, California official web site:
http://www.ElSegundo.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=9677

City Council meeting agendas web page of the City of El Segundo, California official web site:
http://www.ElSegundo.org/depts/elected/agendas.asp
(Scroll down to the “Council Meeting Agenda Packet 05-01-12 – 5pm Session – Item #1 – Communications” item, and view or download the PDF file named “2012-05-01, CC Agenda PACKET, 5PM Session, ITEM #1, Communications.pdf”. Note the 4/30/2012 file revision date.)

Official City of El Segundo, California web site:
http://www.ElSegundo.org/

“The City Manager and Finance Director should NOT be negotiating employee contracts or agreements for salaries, benefits, or pensions” post on the Public Safety Project web site containing the April 27, 2012 Public Communication email from Michael D. Robbins to the El Segundo City Council members and City Clerk:
http://publicsafetyproject.org/blog/2012/04/27/city-manager-finance-director-should-not-negotiate-employee-contracts/
(This post contains the second of three emails, and is the same as the third email except that this post makes the “http://www.YouTube.com/user/PublicSafetyProject” web link typo correction made in the third email.)