Gary Creagle

Sometimes when I get around to writing this editorial it seems like a novel would be a better fit. The dramatic entertainment city council meetings provide overwhelms my ability to report.

For example, last night we were entertained once again by Bob Stroh and Gary Creagle, two regulars. Stroh loves to discuss the Gazette’s failed effort to operate a newspaper web press operation. He thinks I should give back Redevelopment money which the city provided in an effort to increase new business and provide, in this case, about 15 new jobs.

I, among many others, received funds to help with preparations and operations, which amounted to a little less than 10 percent of the $800,000 plan. The plan which had taken more than 6 years to implement, involved traveling to four states, looking at some 20 presses, finding and retrofitting a 22,000 square foot building, wiring a 60-foot Goss SSE press, extensive construction, and 7-days-a week attention for 3 years, was ultimately unsuccessful.

It was a time when the economy was vibrant, more than 10 years ago. I worked myself almost to death on that project. Needless to say I was more than unhappy with the outcome of my best efforts. I kept the city apprised of progress, and warned of ultimate failure. I wish all entrepreneurial efforts paid off; most in this town did not.

However, the money Stroh enjoys talking about did not come from the general fund, as he implies. And, in the end, the project took everything I had at the time.

But time marches on, and the Gazette recovered, remarkably.

Bob Stroh is a diehard, card-carrying Katzenjammer of the first order. He’s right up there with former failed mayor Gary “fisticuffs” Creagle, Patti Walker, Brian Sipes, Jamey “The Sword” Brooks, Clay “hushpuppy” Westling, and Gayle “Cell Tower” Washburn. This is a really colorful cabal.

Where Stroh is concerned, I just have to grin and bear it. He’s just a retired guy who has settled into a life of blogging. Creagle is a different matter. His habitual, truly outrageous lies and misrepresentations need to be sorted and hung out to dry. Creagle is essentially a bully who has run out of targets, but not out of bull. Too bad we can’t put on the gloves as in days of old. I remember him from back in the day, when I worked hard to rehabilitate his reputation. Sorry to say my efforts were successful.

He now assails our former city attorney by reminiscing about his days with the sheriff’s department where he got to know many attorneys, and knows what a good attorney (and engineer, for that matter) is supposed to do. He excoriates the reputation of the greatest city manager Fillmore has ever had, Roy Payne. When he served on the council from from 1984 to 1988, reports the L.A. Times, he “was the target of an unsuccessful recall effort”. Five former mayors publically called him a loser. His record speaks for itself, even louder than Gary facing the mic (http://articles.latimes.com/print/2001/jan/31/local/me-19325).

In order to establish Creagle’s lack of credibility I will soon list a number of his whoppers culled from the recent past. It’s important to know this guy who is such an energetic booster for Washburn, Sipes, Brooks, and the city’s clerk (and Creagle’s protégé) Clay Westling. It’s important because this November the residents of Fillmore will face the most important election in this city’s history.

I hear the City of Davis is “thrilled” to embrace our former city manager, Yvonne Quiring, as its new assistant manager. Let’s thrill everyone by electing a new city clerk and three brand new council members. Then, maybe, Gary Creagle, who has not been a resident for years, will go home and things in Fillmore will return to normal.