Intimidation?
A woman called me while I was out of town Monday and was upset that we had published Janie Sheppard's opinion piece Sunday which attempted to gauge the support for the mall at Masonite based on the public speakers during the last hearing on it before the Board of Supervisors in August. In her column, Sheppard said that the "Smart Growth" organization had gone through all the cards submitted to the Board of Supervisors by people who wanted to speak on the topic. As some of you may already know, when there's a public hearing on a topic, the supervisors require people to fill out cards letting the BOS know they want to speak. These cards give a name and, according to the woman, address and what their views are, pro or con.
This woman said that for "Smart Growth" to get hold of these cards and then announce that they have them in an opinion piece in the newspaper is nothing less than intimidation against people who may support the proposed mall.
She said people who don't agree with the "Smart Growth" anti-mall view and want to participate are less likely to do so if they believe the people in this organization are somehow going to set them up as examples of people who don't care about our Valley.
"It's intimidation and bully tactics by smart growth," she complained.
There are several things I want to say about this. First, to the woman who called and who did not leave her name or a number by which I could return her call: I will print any opinion piece by any organization who wishes to support the idea of more retail in this valley. I have said before that we are not for or against this project officially and there's certainly no barrier here at the UDJ to publishing opposing views.
Also, as some will see, I have put quotes around "Smart Growth" in each case here because it denotes that the organization which is opposing the mall is called Ukiah Valley Smart Growth. But I would caution that there are lots of views of what smart growth is and they certainly do not have a patent on what's best for his valley or what smart growth here would mean.
Third, on the subject of intimidation. the UVSG - which by the way after a couple of years of activities has finally named one person who will be a public face for the organization, city Planning Commissioner Judy Pruden - does have a tendency to lump people who disagree with them in with "big bad developers." A lot of the UVSG organization simply does not want any more mass retail here, especially big box. Some of them see it as a necessary evil in these times but feel that the Airport Business Park, in the city limits where Wal-Mart now stands, is the only place where any new big box should go since the area is already soiled by it.
Your average Joe or Jane living in this Valley, who wants more retail opportunities in this area and who has seen the falling down abandoned Masonite site year after year might well think, why not? This does not make these people bad citizens or stupid ones. It means they see that nothing the county or the city has done has brought any new jobs to this area, nothing they have done has really preserved the original small town Ukiah they moved to or grew up in, so why not at least provide the citizens with an opportunity to stop having to drive to Santa Rosa every other weekend to get good quality, competitively priced goods?
And one last thing, the requirement that people fill out forms in order to speak at a public hearing is completely illegal under California open meetings laws. The supervisors know this but they continue to require it for their own convenience. They say its' "for the record." Well the record can show that a citizen got up and spoke for or against something without having to know their name or where they live. I would urge anyone who does not wish to fill one out to simply get up during the hearing and say they wish to speak. They may have to wait to the end - that will be the supervisors' punishment for bucking their illegal system - but its perfectly legitimate.