I’m hearing the ethics meeting today lasted 3 hours, and they ruled that there was nothing wrong with the mayor endorsing council candidates or giving them money.
VIDEO COMING
One board member dissented, I believe it was Greg LaFollette.
I guess board member Jack Marsh was being a real stinker.
The essential argument was 1st Amendment rights and the SCOTUS ruling of Citizens United. But the constitutionality of this has nothing to do with if something is ethical. One city councilor (I think Erickson) went as far to accuse Brekke of trying to make the mayor ‘look bad’ and unethical.
The board members felt that we have a very ‘ethical’ city government and were concerned someone would question their ethics.
LOL. Isn’t that why we have this board?
Of course none of this surprises me. The establishment special interest crowd is often saying if it is legal it is ethical.
Given what this board thinks is correct, they must think their bathrooms never smell either. In the eyes of voters however, the actions of the Mayor and certain Councilors are certainly questionable, ethically that is.
“The Ethics Board must have been advised by Alan Dershowitz”…. “‘Anything the mayor does is ethical….'”
I was upper management with the city (now long retired) and when I was on the book of faces (haven’t been for >10 years now), I “friended” Kermit Staggers. I always admired his candor and approach to government. Though there were many issues on which we disagreed, you ALWAYS knew where he stood. He wasn’t a shifty and slippery governmental reptile like we have now.
Peace!
This “friending” was noticed by other management individuals and I was told I couldn’t support a candidate by city policy/law/or whatever. Being the pushover I’ve always been (hehehe), I, in no uncertain terms, made it clear their threats of disciplinary action would be welcome…”bring it on…this should be a good court case”. Nothing became of it and it was never mentioned again! I don’t believe the Hatch Act ( https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1046/hatch-act-of-1939 ) addressed who or whom I “friend” on facebook!
City government remains corrupt and it isn’t getting any better. I see no hope in the future when votes are bought by big money and pacs. Just a mini-version of our county, state, and federal system…getting more corrupt by the minute. I don’t reside in SF and haven’t for some time but still follow the bullshit that is pulled. It is sad indeed.
Peace!
Why are we surprised? The same crowd, which does business with an entity, which is being investigated by OSHA (Hultgren), and whose practices of tearing down a load-bearing wall without the proper permits, then results in the death of a worker, is the same crowd which gave us the Bunker Ramp debacle, and is now trying to give the state a TIF (Seney Island Development), which is also now the same crowd which says that what the mayor did here is ethical.
Don’t forget what Nixon said during the Frost interviews: “Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal”…. #NixonHaken… #APlumbersToolBag