The Gazette had a difficult time last week. To begin with, we lost all internet communications from 8 a.m. until after noon, due to our provider up-dating its code. We were not informed of the up-date, and our router could not handle the change. After this, another provider in Texas suffered the loss of a major piece of hardware which took us down again. Anyway, we survived to get the paper out.

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I received a call from an indignant reader concerning a story on page 2, headlined “Representative Gallegly Votes to “’Cut, Cap and End Medicare”’ In the confusion of last week we neglected to check the source and failed to notice that there was no byline.

In short, we were snookered. The story was false. Congressman Gallegly certainly did not “vote to end Medicare”, and the Gazette has supported Gallegly since the first year he ran for office. We regret the oversight.

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I am disgusted to learn that two pieces of graffiti have sullied the Fillmore environment for more than a week without being removed. One is an elaborate stencil of Ollie the Aztec, complete with veil. Ollie is prominently displaying his funny face on the eastern wall of the bank building across the street from city hall.
Question: Why hasn’t this been painted-over? It’s an impertinent advertisement for the stupidity of being in a criminal gang. Where are you City Manager Quiring?

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Moving right along, I have also noticed that the bicycle storage unit in the city parking lot, across the street (south) from city hall also has some prominent gang graffiti on it. Our city manager must see this on her afternoon walks, as others do. Why hasn’t this been removed? Why advertise a stupid criminal presence in town? Another city manager failure.

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My next negative observation involves our appointed Mayor, Gayle Washburn.

Having to tolerate rank incompetence is one thing, tolerating an obviously clumsy lie is quite another.

The Gazette will have a more complete story next week concerning the now infamous attempt by Washburn, and council members Brooks and Sipes, to appeal a non-existent decision of the city’s Planning Commission. That attempt, and Washburn’s slurs against the city’s most competent commission, caused three long-serving commissioners to resign in protest. Washburn now claims that the event never happened (see “The Bottom Line”, this page). She says (Brooks and Sipes included) they never requested to have the cell phone tower decision appealed. This is contrary to all evidence, including personal “ear-witnesses”, and the records of the San Francisco law firm of Mackenzie & Albritton LLP. The denial is also contrary to the approved minutes of the meeting in question. Any such attempt to appeal the Commission’s approval of the tower is unlawful according to the Federal Telecommunications Act, as stated in the law firm’s letter dated July 11, 2011. The letter states, “Without considering the impact on due process, the Mayor announced an intent on behalf of Council to appeal the Planning Commission approval before the Planning Commission had even heard the matter, which usurped the Planning Commission’s authority, and demonstrated bias against the project...”

The Gazette is awaiting documentation from Mackenzie & Albritton which corroborates the accusation against Washburn, Brooks, and Sipes. We hope to have the full story next week. At that time we will document the words and actions of these three Katzenjammers and compare them to established facts.

Washburn also characterized the Commission’s remarks as “theatrics” proven, in her mind, by the fact that the Gazette videotaped the reading of the letters of resignation. Note to the Mayor: the city videotapes all council meetings as well.

It’s too late for a recall. The next best thing would be to hose-out that Augean stable located at 500 Central Avenue.

Final note: This week marks the Fillmore Gazette’s 22nd anniversary.