Politics & Government
Letter to the Editor: 'Last Week's Belmont Candidates' Forum a Fiasco'
The author says the mailer sent out by the Belmont Chamber of Commerce was partisan, and strayed from the mission of the Chamber.
Dear Editor;
Last Thursday at the Belmont Library was a fiasco. Sixty to seventy residents arrived at the Library throughout the evening starting around 6.30pm expecting to observe a City Council Candidates Forum sponsored by the Belmont Chamber of Commerce inside the Library. However, the Chamber had gone overboard in publicizing the Forum with a city wide mailer that was, to say the least, very partisan. The mailer strayed a long way from the missions of the Chamber which are, according to its website "Before us today are decisions that will affect the business community through at least 2035.
Belmont faces such issues as:
- Caltrain Electrification
- High Speed Rail Bended Approach/Passing Tracks
- Replacing Unused Commercial Space with Vibrant Businesses
- General Plan for the City
- Four new “Village” mixed use developments downtown
- Belmont Shuttle between businesses and recreational points
- New taxes to be imposed by the City"
"Downtown - No more studies please"
"Some ordinances may appear to be innocuous but end up being very detrimental......"
"Tree Ordinance: Currently this is way too restrictive...."
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"Views: ........ we have no ordinance protecting views like other cities have. Why?"
"Home Expansion: Belmont has discouraged home expansion............neighboring cities allow this (i.e. 400 sq ft expansion requires there be a 2-car garage..), yet Belmont refuses. Why?"
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"Sign Ordinance: This has become way too restrictive."
The big questions is: Who at the Chamber prepared the mailer?
In any event the League wisely withdrew from moderating the Forum.
The Chamber failed to get a permit to use the Library. The City withheld permission for the League to use the Library. BUT a quasi impromptu confused Forum did take place in the cold outside the Library, in the amphitheater behind the Library.
What a sad state of affairs! But was anybody from the City Administration on hand at 6.30pm on Thursday to explain to disgruntled residents why the Forum did not take place INSIDE THE LIBRARY?
No, the City Manager was conspicuous by his absence. The unhappy task fell on the Mayor's shoulders.
Was any of the above explained the next day when the City Manager issued his 9-27-2013 "Weakly Update". Certainly not. Was there a Press Release by the City? Again, no.
The Update could have addressed the reasons why the City cancelled permission to use the Library for the Forum.
Both the Library and the League of Women Voters have taken flack because the Chamber of Commerce has some very partisan people controlling Chamber publicity.
See attached.
If the Chamber was denied permission to use the Library, the City should now explain why a City staff member opened the back gate to permit access to the Library amphitheater at 6.30pm on Thursday?
Also, why was the chief executive officer of the City, namely the City Manager, not at the Library to explain to an angry gathering of sixty to seventy people why the Library was not available? This was surprising given he has always, in the past, attended city wide meetings (e.g. the Ralston Corridor study night).
Did the City Manager's Office decide that the duty to explain the situation on Thursday night lay with the Mayor rather than the City Manager? The Mayor certainly did not appear to enjoy herself in so doing. She deserves our sympathy.
Perry Kennan
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