The bad penny returns

If politics could be compared to toxic waste, Pacific would be a Superfund site. Like the beast that won't die, the poisons just keep boiling up out of the ground.

In the last Speed Trap City, I posed a question: who raised the issue of Councilman Gary Hulsey’s three-decades old murder conviction, and why at this time? Superficial, sentimental media coverage created a smoke screen that helped to divert the discussion from who stood to gain by the disclosure. However, it appears that the other shoe has dropped and that the bad actor has peeked out from behind the curtain. That compulsive indiscretion suggests who else was involved and benefited.

Twelve years ago, when Pacific’s politics were particularly venomous, I was involved in Pacific Candlelighters, the predecessor to Pacific Partnerships, with the aim of trying to build community. In my naïveté, I  telephoned one of the political activists to see whether both sides in the brouhaha might be able to be civil with one another. It took about 30 seconds of a telephone conversation to realize this particular activist wasn’t well centered. I contacted a leading candidate and suggested that there might be a problem with this activist. The candidate didn’t disagree, but observed that the person we were discussing was very useful politically. That usefulness persisted for some time, particularly in the area of character assassination, and there were several individuals who stubbornly continued to dip into this resource even after the ethics of this exploitation were called into question.

There’s a term for a person who can be used as a remote tool to accomplish an end without the prime mover getting his hands dirty: cat’s paw. Here’s how Wikipedia defines the term:

Cat's paw is a phrase derived from La Fontaine's fable, "The Monkey and the Cat", referring to a person used unwittingly by another to accomplish his own purposes.

I think there’s a great possibility that Gary Hulsy’s past was exposed through the use of this particular cat’s paw, the bad penny who bubbled back up into Pacific politics.

Folks whose memories stretch back for 10 years and longer  won’t  have any trouble understanding whodunnit, the personal connections and loyalties, and who stands to gain at this time. Of Pacific’s elected officials, Councilman Clint Steiger has been around long enough to figure it out and realize who got sucked in. It’s quite possible the rest don’t have a clue of how they’ve been worked for a political end.

Unpleasant questions

In Pacific, the beat goes on. I think of Pacific as “Speed Trap City”, but it really should change its name to Turmoil. The latest shoe to fall is the news that a sitting city councilman stabbed his wife to death 34 years ago. Reactions quoted by media and in e-mails include: Shouldn’t be holding office; disturbing; he’s paid his debt, etc. They all miss the point.

The point is, why is this being mentioned at this time? Cy Sun got it right, when he campaigned on cleaning up corruption, but I don’t think he had a clue as to how metastasized the rot is.

While people are being quoted about how they feel regarding the news about Councilman Gary Hulsey’s murder conviction, a more interesting question to me is this: who was motivated to dredge up the past, and what was the reason for doing this, and at this time? Are people being manipulated? Again?

While no-one was able to establish that the new mayor actually had been awarded medals for valor in the Korean War, it only takes about $15 and a social security number for a landlord to determine whether a tenant has a criminal record. So here are some interesting facts, followed by some even more interesting questions:

• While I was a reporter on the Auburn Globe-News in the 70s, I quoted Pacific Police Chief Ronald Earwood as saying he was performing background checks on his detractors. Earwood had gotten the city into a million dollar lawsuit over police brutality, and this disclosure was the spark in the tinderbox. But doing background checks was not a new practice. About that same time the Algona Police Chief had told me he conducted background checks on everyone who moved into town. Another Algona Police Chief later disclosed to me the criminal conviction of an Algona city councilman. And when I was on the committee several years ago to have a city manager replace the mayor in Pacific, a former city council member disclosed that while she held office, a controversial police chief was keeping dossiers on council members. So, the police know things.

• Here are some facts that are more current: Pacific Public Safety Director John Calkins was charged with drunk driving and intimidating the arresting officer; he testified in court that he doesn’t drink beer, while I have seen a photograph of him doing just that; he is accused in a deposition of requiring employees to view porn; he also failed a polygraph examination on whether he threatened an individual with a hand gun, and he was investigated for tampering with a witness. He proposed writing more speeding tickets not for public safety, but to raise revenue. His department practiced racial profiling. When a house burned to the ground on his watch, he bellowed at a city council member for asking why. When I published the claim that he was related to then-Mayor Howard Erickson, he bellowed at me in a city council meeting, denying the allegation. But according to the people who disclosed the relationship, it was Mr. Erickson who made them aware of it. No-one ever hauled him up short for this and other rude behavior until Mr. Sun put him on administrative leave for bellowing at the city’s treasurer about a month ago. By the way, Mr. Calkins testified in court under oath that he can’t raise his voice, so he couldn’t have yelled at the arresting officer at his DUI stop. Or at me, either. I must have imagined it.

• When Mr. Sun displayed his war medals in a public meeting, he said he stored them away and didn’t look at them because of all the painful memories. Then he castigated Mr. Hulsey for accusing him of making false claims, and several other people for raising the question. But it was Mr. Sun  who introduced the subject during an election campaign, at a time when it is appropriate to thoroughly examine anyone who is going to be trusted in public office.

• Now that he is in office, Mr. Sun has been rolling heads. Some people are calling “foul.” They are angry at him for cleaning up a mess that they neglected for years, including the mayor’s use of public moneys for his personal career development, and the misuse of the state’s credit, followed by an inept police investigation that scuttled the council’s feeble effort to stop the abuse. Here’s a little secret: If you wait until the barbarians are at the gate, you don’t get to complain about collateral damage. Here’s another little secret: The barbarians don’t stay. If you want a stable long-lasting government, you have to have good people.

 Now it’s time for the unpleasant questions:

• If Public Safety Director John Calkins, a civilian, can show up at city council meetings in a police uniform he’s not qualified to wear, why should Mr. Hulsey care whether Cy Sun can claim medals for valor and try to have him investigated as a criminal? Which is the worse offense—impersonating a hero, or impersonating a police officer? Note that Mr. Hulsey sits with Councilman Clint Steiger on the public safety committee that has oversight over Mr. Calkins.

• When Mayor Richard Hildreth met with Mr. Hulsey and Mr. Steiger to discuss an unfavorable report on Mr. Calkins by the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Department, did no-one know about Mr. Hulsey’s conviction—not even Mr. Calkins? If Mr. Calkins knew, did Mr. Hildreth (his boss) know? Did Mr. Hildreth tell them about the depositions alleging Mr. Calkins’ invitation to employees to view porn in his office?

• Mr. Hulsey appears to be a team player. Why would someone “out” him? Is it a coincidence that this disclosure occurred after Mr. Calkins was put on administrative leave? Does someone stand to gain by humiliating the individual who questioned Mr. Sun’s honesty about his war medals? Was someone angling for advantage at a time of house cleaning?

 Mr. Sun has alleged that his war record is his private business. Well. I sympathize with Mr. Sun for the lingering pain he feels, but this is business. To say that he is not accountable is to play the Hildreth card. When people asked Mr. Hildreth questions he lied, tap danced, disparaged and blew smoke. In order to maintain control and dominate, he demeaned and slandered people who were exercising the rights and duties of citizens in a democracy. He frustrated rational discourse. Mr. Sun has set a precedent for following Mr. Hildreth’s example.

Mr. Sun, listen to this: Public officials are public property. You have a duty to be transparent. You have a duty to conduct yourself in such a manner that you are trusted and that people have confidence in government. No matter how painful your memories are, your public duty transcends your wish to avoid personal issues. It’s a tough fact of political life. As Mr. Truman said – if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. You have no obligation to serve; but if you serve, you have an ethical obligation to be accountable. Mr. Hulsey had a right to ask the question about the medals, and painful as it may have been, you had a duty to respond. (It would be nice if there were a tradition in Pacific for more civil dialog in instances like this.) I just wish he had been a little more aggressive on probing Mr. Calkins’ conduct as well. Mr. Calkins should have been fired years ago.

For the the public in general: Don't mistake a public servant for a doormat. If they show respect for you, show respect in return.

And as for the the individuals who make up the body of elected officials in this city: Get a backbone. When something’s wrong, don’t stick your head in the sand. The weekly meetings belong to the council. not the mayor. Have the courtesy to ensure that the public is respected when they come to you, and have the courage to work the problems until you’ve fixed them. Don’t let them fester. Be transparent and accountable. Or make way for someone who can do the job.

And as for the voters in Pacific, it’s time to ask this question: Why is this city here? Wouldn’t it be a lot better if Pacific were simply a neighborhood of Auburn? If Auburn can run the fire department, couldn’t it provide  the police and public works services as well? Right now Pacific is not a community; it is an aggregation of people who could probably be a lot happier if this silly little government just went away. If the government can't obtain professional standards, getting rid of it would be a good first step toward building a genuine community.

Gary Hulsey's Dangerous Game

Pacific City Councilman Gary Hulsey has gone on record claiming that the city's new mayor, Cy Sun, didn't really earn the service medals he claims to have earned. Mr. Sun published his claims when he was a candidate for mayor.
Mr. Hulsey is a patriotic individual. After the pledge of allegiance at council meetings, he salutes the flag. I think his behavior is likely sincere. But sincere or not, his objections smack of an intent to betray the November election by having Mr. Sun removed from office.

It's not the first time Pacific voters would have been betrayed. Eight years ago, when Rich Hildreth became mayor, he was betraying the voters right out of the starting gate by lying to the council and undermining their authority. That power grab, and the council's acceptance of it, led to my resignation, followed by the appointment to my vacancy of an individual who had been given the boot, Councilman Clint Steiger. This inauspicious beginning laid the foundation for Mr. Hildreth's eventual fall from grace due to his greed and insensitivity.

Mr. Sun didn't get elected for his claims that he had service medals. He got elected because voters were fed up with the self-serving hypocrisy of a mayor who couldn't wait to get his hands in the cookie jar to pay for his FEMA training, who flagrantly misused the state's credit for personal advantage, and who repeatedly dominated and insulted members of the public. They were also fed up with a public safety director who had developed a reputation as a racial profiling scofflaw and a bully who has been accused in at least one deposition of requiring employees to view porn while on duty. Both Mr. Hulsey and Mr. Steiger had been members of the council's public safety committee, which has oversight over the public safety division.

If anyone should be closely scrutinized, it's the members of the council who repeatedly turned a blind eye to the corruption, and who still believe their inaction is blameless.

Instead of attacking the new mayor, it's time for members of the council, especially Mr. Hulsey, to look at their compliance with outrageous behavior.

Mr. Sun's service in the Korean War has no bearing on what was happening in Pacific. The council's enabling of boorish, bullying, dishonest behavior did have an impact, and the voters have told the elected officials as much.

While Mr. Hulsey and others are poring over documents to bolster their point of view, I'd like to suggest a really old document that is much more relevant—Luke 4:23: Physician, heal thyself.

A Roadmap to Recall

It’s possible that every member of the Pacific City Council could be vulnerable to recall.

My understanding of the recall process is that the basis for removing public officials from office through the electoral process  is their guilt of misfeasance, malfeasance, or nonfeasance. In other words, they performed poorly (misfeasance), they performed badly (malfeasance), or they didn’t do what they should have done (nonfeasance).

In my opinion, charges of misfeasance can be brought for approving expenditures that occurred due to improper use of a city credit card by Mayor Richard Hildreth. It does not matter that the former mayor paid back the money he borrowed, any more than if a bank robber changed his mind and returned the cash. 

 Nonfeasance can be claimed against the council for tolerating abuses by the public safety division. While it is true that some council members have been re-elected, they have since been informed about alleged abuses (allegations of a forged document and viewing pornography on a city computer during duty hours) and have not taken action to determine the truth of the allegations. 

The city council, being the legislative branch of the government, has oversight over the executive branch. That’s one reason for committees such as the public safety committee and the finance committee to exist. It  is appropriate for the public safety committee to review performance and set standards; and the finance committee must review every expenditure made on behalf of the city and approve them BEFORE they are paid. My belief is that the city honored Mayor Richard Hildreth’s credit card expenditures and by so doing, committed misfeasance.

 If an individual can demonstrate that the council was made aware of egregious abuses and took no action to correct them, or if the council negligently approved improper expenditures, that individual can present the facts to the public and ask the public to sign petitions calling for removal. 

When enough signatures are gathered, a judge reviews the issue to determine whether the claims of misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance describe behavior that qualifies for removal for office.

The judge does not evaluate the truth of the allegations. He only determines whether the allegations, if true, provide sufficient cause for removal.

If approved, the recall proceeds to the ballot, and the voters become the jury. Note that this is not a jury that receives instructions from the judge. This it the jury of public opinion. Once the recall becomes a ballot measure, the voters can kick out the elected officials for the reasons given, or for any reason at all.

In my opinion, it’s not a matter of whether council members can be recalled. There are only two key questions here: First,  whether anyone has the will to take action. Second,  whether the electorate still has a head of steam up, or whether the voters have calmed down since November, when they unmistakably demonstrated that they are miles apart from their elected officials.

If I were to place a bet on this, I would bet that the voters got their rage out of their system and are ready to yawn and move on. But I'm also the guy who thought Cy Sun didn't have the chance in hell of getting elected mayor. 

AFTERTHOUGHT: The summer before I took office on the council, a representative of Canfield, the city’s insurance company, met with candidates and elected officials and said two things I have never forgotten: First, Mayor Howard Erickson had to beg three times for Canfield to represent the city after Mr. Erickson drove their predecessor away. Lose Canfield’s coverage and the city would be in a “world of hurt,” the spokesman said. Between the lines: no insurance, NO CITY!

The second thing Canfield advised was for the city council not to make sound recordings of their meetings and to keep the briefest of minutes, in order to reduce their exposure to lawsuits. The message: The fewer the records you keep, the better. That might be good from a liability standpoint, but it nurtures the type of insolence that aggravated the public and caused the backlash that showed up in the last election.

A brief history of cancer

Remember this line?  “There is a cancer growing on the presidency.” It dates back to the Nixon presidency and the Watergate scandal.

Well, there has been a cancer growing on the City of Pacific. It was introduced about 10 years ago, and it has sapped the strength of the city and alienated it from its residents. The cancer is the public safety division.

Like most cancers, it wasn’t recognized for what it was until it had a firm grip on its host. But for the past 10 years it has dominated the life of a government that has been afraid of the surgery necessary to excise it. It grew, it thrived, and it has insinuated itself so thoroughly into the body of its host that its removal may prove uncomfortable, indeed. But it is time for this cancer to go.

In 2000, Howard Erickson was elected mayor after a bruising political fight in the city. After taking office, he fired the police chief, then introduced the concept of merging the police and fire departments into a public safety division as an economy measure. It proved to be anything but economical. The concept involved having a public safety director who would be both police and fire chief. The council agreed. It eliminated the position of police chief and created the position of public safety director. Two days after the filing period for that position closed, Mr. Erickson appointed John T. Calkins to the position. Without thoroughly vetting Mr. Calkins, the council approved.

Soon afterward, the folly became apparent.  A house caught fire and burned to the ground. Fire staff who should have been on hand to manage the response were out of state, driving a new fire truck back to the city. A hydrant that should have served the house was dry. In a subsequent city council meeting, Mr. Calkins showed up in a full dress fire uniform which he was not qualified to wear and, in front of TV cameras, yelled at Councilwoman Bernadine Harrison that she was a disgrace and should resign. Her offense – holding the public safety division to account for the debacle.

Mr. Calkins had essentially gone on record as being unaccountable to the city’s civilian authority. And the council allowed it.

Following the fire, Pacific hired a fire chief, thereby nullifying the savings that were supposed to occur by consolidating the police and fire chief positions.

10 years later, Pacific no longer has a fire department. But it still has a public safety director, who is paid more than $100,000 annually for doing half the job the position was created to perform. Due to financial constraints, some staff salaries have been cut, but the public safety director’s position is secure. The division continues to be a burden on the city’s coffers and staff. 

During the past 10 years, 

• John Calkins failed a polygraph examination on whether he threatened a man with a handgun.

• John Calkins was stopped for drunk driving. On the evening of his arrest he had worn to a public event a T-shirt celebrating police brutality during the Chicago Police Riots of 1968.

Note the statement:
"We kicked your father's ass,
now it's your turn."

• Following the filing of vehicular assault charges against John Calkin's son, Mr. Calkins was investigated by the Sumner Police Department for tampering with one of the witnesses to the assault.

• John Calkins sent officers for training on immigration enforcement, which is not the mission of the City of Pacific. The training took place in Arizona, with a department which recently was cited by a federal judge for racial profiling. Pacific’s racial profiling policies garnered poor media coverage and drew the attention of the Governor, who sent an emissary  to speak to the city council.

• John Calkins violated federal civil rights law in trying to suppress a civil rights march protesting his racial profiling policies.

• John Calkins was accused in at least one deposition of calling probationary employees into his office to view pornography on city time and on a city computer. One former employee has provided evidence that Mr. Calkins’ division provided a fraudulent document to a magistrate considering the termination of that employee and that the fraudulent document included a forgery.

• In a memo released at a Public Safety Committee meeting, John Calkins disclosed that, due to budget constraints he was going to increase revenue for his division by instructing his officers to write more tickets. Improving public safety was not mentioned in the document.

• Calkins continued to wear a police uniform he is not qualified to wear. He is a civilian.

• When the city council called for an investigation into the improper use of a city credit card by Mayor Richard Hildreth, John Calkins helped the mayor by having his division ask the wrong questions.

• During the most recent election campaign, a public safety police officer was sent to investigate a mayoral candidate who circulated an election flier that irritated Mayor Richard Hildreth.

• During that same campaign, Mr. Calkins demonstrated his incompetence by sending out a news release exaggerating a residential burglary into a home invasion. This was clearly a bid to rally the community behind the mayor.  The news release– also circulated by Mayor Richard Hildreth – identified the neighborhood involved and disclosed that the victim was an elderly man who had kept large sums of money in his home. The news release provided information on how the home could be entered.

So our public safety division is headed by a screaming, incompetent, unethical, disrespectful racially profiling bully who is accused or requiring subordinates to view porn, and is being paid for a job that no longer exists.

The city council can’t claim this is the mayor’s problem. They can simply rewrite the ordinances, eliminating the position of public safety director, re-create the position of police chief, advertise the position for police chief,  and then confirm only a candidate with the best credentials and best reputation for that position. Or, they could enter into a contract with a competent government to provide public safety services. We are already doing that with the regional fire authority.

There is a cancer that has lodged itself in Pacific’s city government. Time for the city council to adopt a New Year's resolution: perform some radical surgery. The sooner, the better.

If they don't act to correct this situation, knowing what they have been told, perhaps it's time to start considering recall on the basis of misfeasance or nonfeasance. 

Next time: A Roadmap to Recall.

Mayor Richard Hildreth Damns His Own Legacy

Recent televised news reports and other sources show Pacific Mayor Richard Hildreth, who was defeated by a write-in candidate in the November election, predicting that the new mayor, Cy Sun, will represent trouble for the city. Sun's own statements indicate this is true.

What Mr. Hildreth doesn't seem to get is that the election of Mr. Sun is a direct result of how Mr. Hildreth ran the city. People were dissatisfied enough with him to give him the boot and elect "Anybody but Rich." The chickens came home to roost, and Mr. Hildreth is, in effect, criticizing the fruits of his labor.

– Robert Smith, member, Pacific City Council, 2002-2004.

What Has Gotten Into Pacific’s Public Officials?

Americanism: When I was growing up, I totally embraced the concepts of what it meant to be an American. I still believe the ideas we were taught in childhood are close to sacred, and I think other Americans feel the same. American values are almost religious values, and they are matched by a sacred symbol (the Flag), a sacred oath (Pledge of Allegience) and sacred scrolls (the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

These are Articles of Faith for Americans. We believe that the people are king and elected officials are servants. But these ideas just aren’t honored in Pacific. I’d like to know why.

Here are some examples:

Defiance: In 2003, voters resoundedly cast city councilman Clint Steiger out of office. Shortly afterward, Members of that council thumbed their noses at the voters by immediately filling a vacancy with Mr. Steiger.

Church Raid: In 2005, the entire Pacific Police Department and Mayor Hildreth raided New Hope Lutheran Church to arrest a skateboarder. A police officer had detained the youth, then drove off to chase his companion. The youth crossed Third Avenue and joined a prayer dinner in the church’s parking lot. Skateboarding in the park is not an offense listed on the sign stating the park’s rules. Raiding a church event to detain someone for an activity not clearly prohibited by the park’s posted rules is an inexcusable display of bullying. The mayor has never apologized for the overkill.

Racial profiling: September, 2007: The Pacific Police Department had taken it upon themselves to enforce the 21st Century’s version of the Fugitive Slave Act. They would look at Latinos, determine they were suspicious because of their race and illegally detain and jail them. Even the governor protested the outrageous behavior. When people planned a protest march which is allowed under the Constitution, Mr. Calkins took on the demeanor of a southern red neck sheriff and talked about “outside agitators”. He and Mayor Richard Hildreth threatened to arrest anyone who marched, an action which seems to be a violation of federal criminal law intended to protect the rights of people to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. (18 USC 241. Conspiracy against rights) The right of free speech is sacred to Americans. Our forebearers risked their lives and their fortunes to obtain these rights. Mr. Calkins brought in police from other jurisdictions. He and the mayor only backed down after an American Civil Liberties Union attorney contacted the Pacific City Attorney.

Demeaning the public: When people address the city council, they have to run a one-man gauntlet—Mayor Hidreth, who makes a point of getting in the last word by either cutting speakers off or making dismissive comments when they are done. This is very disrespectful of the public and discourages people from speaking to the council. It is dominating behavior. The council has allowed the mayor to do this, and thus to filter the information that reaches them.

Police brutality: Fall 2008: At the time public safety director Calkins was arrested and charged with drunk driving, he was wearing a T-shirt that celebrated the night in 1968 when Chicago police rioted and committed crimes of violence against the public during the Democratic National Convention. The T-shirt carried the slogan, “We kicked your father’s ass, now it’s your turn.” Mr. Calkins was accused of trying to intimidate the officer who detained him for drunk driving. In a classic case of double standard, Mr. Hildreth went onto the World Wide Web to defend the chief, but the next day prohibited any discussion of the arrest at a city council meeting.

Defiance: I printed a T-shirt  that bore the photo of Mr. Calkins wearing his “kick your ass” message, and displayed it to the Pacific City Council to shame them into realizing what they tolerated. The response of Council Member Clint Steiger—the man voters had booted out of office—was to defiantly compliment Mr. Calkins for the fine likeness. This is similar to the attitude of the southern sheriff who was depicted in Life magazine as making jokes during an inquiry about the disappearance and brutal slaying of civil rights workers. My father was a Spokane policeman and learned from a Spokane attorney who traveled to the south that it appeared one of the dead men had been forced to leap from a crane. Mr. Steiger’s comment is different from that sheriff’s attitude only in degree. 

Tolerating unprofessional behavior: Spring 2010: Councilman James McMahon castigates me in an e-mail for producing the T-shirt. But he is silent about the appalling attitude reflected in Mr. Calkin’s garment—that  a police riot against citizens is something to display and celebrate. The message from Mr. McMahon: It’s OK for Pacific’s public safety director, on the night he is arrested for driving drunk, to attend a public sporting event while boldly displaying on his chest a message that police violence is OK. But it’s not OK for a member of the public to denounce that sort of attitude. What is really astonishing is that Mr. McMahon delivered this rebuke in a public document barely two months after he took office. His rebuke came at the same time an independent police agency was determining that Mr. Calkins most likely had been abusing his authority by, among other things, threatening an individual by brandishing a handgun.

Denial of union rights: At the time of my interchange with Mr. McMahon, a former policeman was testifying under oath that he was targeted by police management for termination after he was struck by a drunk driver, sustained serious injuries, and was unable to work. He testified that his department investigated him for his inability to work, and that his desire to speak to his union representative about that was treated as insubordination.Message: Don’t exercise your rights.

No appeal about porn: The same policeman testified that Mr. Calkins called him into his office to view pornography, including images of a women smoking a cigar with her vagina. When the city’s attorney asked him whether he reported this to anyone, he said he would have to complain to the individual showing the porn, Mr. Calkins, who worked for the mayor. In other words, there was no-one he could appeal to.

Humiliating the victim: When a woman of some standing in the community (for her service on a city commission) complained to police about a domestic assault against her, she felt the police had provided less than satisfactory help and said the same to the city council. In response Mr. Hildreth distributed to the council the police report, along with photos showing the woman’s bruised condition, further humiliating her. Police Department investigations can be somewhat controversial. In response to a City Council request that Mayor Hildreth’s misuse of a credit card be investigated, the Pacific Police Department investigated the wrong violation, resulting in the prosecutor declining to prosecute. Under these circumstances, Mayor Hildreth’s use of Pacific police department records to discredit a complaint against the department lacks credibility and smacks of ethical violations.

 Extorting drivers: in response to the city’s budget crisis, Mr. Calkins had a solution: Raise money by ticketing more drivers. The memo proposing this gave no indication that this would improve public safety. After the document's release, all copies in the city's possession were destroyed. Mr. Calkins is paid more than $100,000 a year. Although some city staff have had their hours curtailed, Mr. Calkins's salary has not been affected.

More Police State Tactics: This year, when Pacific resident Cy Sun became a write-in candidate for Mayor and distributed fliers accusing the city of corruption, Mayor Richard Hildreth treated Mr. Sun as an enemy of the state by sending police to investigate and intimidate him. 

The lame "You don’t like us excuse:" At the time Councilman McMahon was rebuking me, it was for speaking up about a public employees’ working conditions and protesting the public safety director’s haughty celebration of police violence. He suggested I was a trouble maker and an enemy of the mayor. (This is a familiar theme: “We’re not wrong, the public is. You just don’t like us.” Mr. Calkins used this excuse when he failed a polygraph examination on whether he threatened someone with a hand gun – he told the city council the examiner just didn’t like him.)

More defiance: Mr. McMahon had three suggestions:

·         Run for Mayor.  Rich is up for re-election November of next year.  File for office.  Put yourself out there and let people know what decisions you would make differently and how you would act as Mayor.

·         Sue him.  You make plenty of accusations of illegal activity on Rich's part.  Back it up.  Sue him.

·         Recall him.  If you can't wait until November to vote against Rich, file a petition to recall him, prove to a court his malfeasance or misfeasance and let the people of Pacific decide the issue.

I think we both know why you won't do any of these. 

 Translation: I’m not here to represent you. You don’t like it, use your own resources to fight city hall. Now go away.

 Insolence: 500 years ago, Shakespeare had a name for this: The insolence of office.

These people define insolence: They display contemptuously rude or impertinent behavior and speech.

And so my question: How did we get to this point? How long are we going to stay here? And why?

 Next in Speed Trap City: More about the Jowers lawsuit.