GRoK This!

Our visit to the RSM City Council

On Wed, Aug 12, about a half-dozen of us from the Canyon Democrats went to the RSM city council meeting. The city council had obviously been expecting some commentary on their letter (see page 5 of Aug issue of Trabuco Canyon News), because they moved the public comments portion of the meeting from the end to the middle. They called Ron Shepston up first. Here's Ron's speech:

I'm Ron Shepston and I'm here to speak on behalf of the Santa Margarita residents who are members of the Canyon Democrats.

To say that we're disappointed in your letter to President Obama published in the Trabuco Canyon News would be an understatement. To say that we're appalled that you as a City Council would inject politics on an issue as important as health care would be closer to describing our disillusionment.

Your letter to President Obama was irresponsible as elected representatives of RSM. As individual citizens you have the right to say anything you want within the law. As members of the RSM city council you have an obligation of integrity and honesty. You were elected because the citizens of RSM trusted you. We think you have betrayed that trust.

Publishing a public letter as the City Council which contains, political talking points, fabrications and deceit and is a blatant display of divisiveness is a breech of the public trust of those citizens who look to you for honest policy in the governance of RSM.

It is one thing to step outside the bounds of the job as a city council to comment on national affairs and it might be warranted in something as important and momentous as a health care bill. What is not warranted is to approach it politically and apply the rules of politics that includes lies and deceptions. Your obligation and responsibility morally excludes engaging in politics in the performance of your job as council members.

We are not so naive as to demand change though we fervently hope that those of us who believe in honoring the public trust might convince you to learn and practice separating governing and politics for the good of those you represent especially including those who disagree with you politically.

Next, they called me. I spoke mainly to emphasize the points in Ron's speech. I noted how RSM has 7,000 Democrats, which is about 25% of their voters. I also noted that in RSM Obama got 42% of the vote last November and McCain got 53%. Obama's 9,494 votes means that around 2,400 non-Democrats voted for Obama. I told them that their hyper-partisan viewpoint ignores those people I just described, and that each one of their talking points can be refuted by simple on-line searches. Bob Turner, another member, spoke next. He talked about the number of patient deaths per year due to the broken system. Lastly, there was a woman who spoke about the care she got in a foreign country and how our country's system is better than socialized medicine. Several of her points are easily refutable as well.

The council's response? Well, they're not really ignoring us, they said. They sent these recommendations up to DC and Sacramento all the time. They respect our point of view. The mayor took a pot-shot at Pelosi, saying that he doesn't like when she calls fellow Americans "un-American" when they are expressing their points (overlooking the fact that she's not annoyed about *what* they're saying but rather *how* they're saying it). The mayor also said that phone calls that he has received have been about 80% in favor of their letter (call them at 949.635.1800 and tell them your opinion!).

We left after that and went outside to talk to an OC Register reporter named John Crandall. He says he's going to include us in the article he's writing.

So that's about all I have to say about what happened. I think it went about as well as could be expected, although I should have asked everyone to phone in their opinions before this meeting. I think that this is a very good start for us getting involved at the local level, and I look forward to us doing this type of thing again. Thanks to all who attended and thanks to Ron and Bob for speaking! We talked at our next meeting about drafting a resolution regarding their letter.

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Posted at 08:03AM Aug 18, 2009 by Gary Kephart in General  |