On July 3, when the Anaheim City Council re-visited the issue of placing single-member council districts on the June 2014 ballot, OCCORD – which has been spearheading the effort with its godparent union UNITE-HERE — was essentially a no-show.
Instead, OCCORD released a video in which four of its regulars said they weren’t coming because the council is ignoring their voices – as if it is City Council’s duty to two the OCCORD/UNITE-HERE line. One of them even complained the council meetings were a “circus” – which is ironic since it is OCCORD and UNITE-HERE who create the unruly circus atmosphere by jeering and booing opposing points of view.
Personally, I suspect the automotons OCCORD and UNITE-HERE turn out were probably burning out and unwilling to show up, so the left-wing group turned lemons into lemonade with a video claiming they would be no shows because the Corporatist Power Structure ignores the Will of the People.
Almost three weeks after the fact, OCCORD is organizing a “picket” of tonight’s council meeting, claiming the City Council “ignored” the recommendations of the Citizens Advisory Committee that OCCORD and UNITE-HERE spent months mightily trying to manipulate into supporting the division of Anaheim into eight single-member council districts.
Of course, OCCORD’s claim is a selective one that doesn’t hold water.
As this blog has noted time and again, the 10-member CAC split on the question of single-member districts versus at-large elections – five members in favor of each. At the final meeting one of the members who had voted for single-member districts had re-considered and joined with other members in an attempt to add another recommendation for electing the council at-large from residency-based districts, but were shut down by the bloc appointed by Mayor Tom Tait and former Councilwoman Lorri Galloway.
In the end, the report that was unanimously adopted by the CAC called for placing before Anaheim voters the following options:
– Electing the council at-large
– Electing the council from single-member districts
– Expanding the council to 6 members
– Expanding the council to 8 members
If OCCORD were honestly and genuinely alarmed that the CAC was being “ignored,” they would be picketing for all four questions to be placed on the June ballot. Of course, they and their allies are doing no such thing because OCCORD could care less about what the CAC actually recommended. They only want the CAC recommendations they agree with placed on the ballot — which makes their denunciations of the council majority’s actions totally hypocritical.
But what else is new?
One last thing: I hope no one from OCCORD, UNITE-HERE or anyone else who speaks tonight in favor of single-member council districts attempts to link Sunday’s march with a alleged community support for carving Anaheim up into eight districts. No one at the protest said anything about council districts except Donna Acevedo, who worked it into her speech to the crowd – whose collective response was total indifference; and in any case, the vast majority of marchers weren’t from Anaheim, and they were far more interested in tearing down the police than in anything else.
“No one at the protest said anything about council districts except Donna Acevedo, who worked it into her speech to the crowd – whose collective response was total indifference…”
Obviously you need to hear the video, THAT was one of her applause lines. Only from the Anaheim folks there, as expected, but it was unmistakeable except to the stubbornly deaf.
Better hear the video of her speech again before you churn out your long-awaited report of the event, pal.
Vern, I was about 10 feet away. I think you were long gone by that point. If the applause only came from Anaheim folks, that may be why I didn’t hear it since there were hardly any Anaheim folks there.
Lines like “F–k the police” — well now, those went over big time with all your left-wing fellow travelers in the crowd.
I’ve seen and heard a video of it. Soon it’ll be on line. You heard what you expected to hear, what you wanted to hear.
Like I said, Vern, I was there (unlike you). And I have video, as well (which I’ll review). Neither you nor Greg (who was there for at least a while) have had much to say about the protest on your blog. maybe that’s because it was, in reality, a radical-fest of left-wing out-of-towners whose impact on mainstream Anaheimer opinion will be negative (from your point of view).
Um… yeah… sure, I suppose. It WAS a fest of folks who are a little more starry-eyed than me or Greg or Donna, and mostly came from out of town, so though it was colorful we didn’t find it THAT relevant. Just the same, I noticed a burst of spontaneous applause when Donna tied in district elections – far from your “collective response was total indifference.” You’ll probably want to walk away from that one when you review your video.
We need a system that looks out for all city residents not just the friends of the city’s Chicano elite disguised as activists and who rather than showing a little gratitude for what this country has given them rail against it. Ingrates!!!