Last night’s ESCRI community forum on last summer’s riots — excuse me, “civil unrest” – underscores why Los Amigos’ idea for the City of Anaheim to sponsor a series of community forums on the city manager selection is a bad one.

These are made-for-media forums. It’s a simple formula: reserve a hall, pick an incendiary topic sure to grab the media’s attention, mobilize your supporters to show, keep them on message and bingo!: media outlets publish stories carrying your groups message to the wider population. See the coverage by the OC Register and the Voice of OC.

Los Amigos’ proposal is ingenious in that Anaheim taxpayers would underwriting Anaheim city staffers to organize and publicize of a whole series of made-for-media forums to which Los Amigos (and allied groups) could mobilize their members and supporters to recite the selected messages.