Let us introduce ourselves for the umpteenth time

Overheard at a self-help meeting: “Hello, my name is Jim Jordan and I am a political junkie. I have lived in Pleasanton since July 1970. I ran for the Pleasanton City Council in 1975 and missed by a whisker of winning a seat. I have remained interested in city politics and have participated in Pleasanton election campaigns over the years—walking the precincts in support of Gene Finch, Ben Tarver, and Sharrell Michelotti for City Council and Ms. Michelotti and Bob Cordtz for mayor. Let me say that my support for Mr. Finch, Ms. Michelotti, and Mr. Cordtz was not misplaced. As for Mr. Tarver, well let us just say that twice burned, thrice shy. Mr. Tarver’s open mind closed rather quickly after he was baptized into Fat Albert Gore’s save the earth Gaia religion whose even more radical high priests are Mayor Jennifer Hosterman and Counselor Matt Sullivan.”

Mr. Cordtz needs no introduction. He is the seasoned citizen who asks the tough questions at City Hall and at City Council meetings. (We are sorry that the daily and weekly press does not follow his lead.) Mr. Cordtz was a Zone 7 candidate (Mr. Water) in 1993, a write-in candidate for City Council in 1992, and a mayoral candidate in 2000. He has sat on various committees over the years—redevelopment and Bernal the most high profile. He and his wife Joan were the operators of the now-retired Plum Tree Inn.

Mr. Jordan was Mr. Cordtz’s campaign manager in 2000 and became his editorial partner of www.OpinionPleasanton.com in 2001.

These Opinion Pleasanton writers have not been hiding. In fact, Jeb Bing of the Pleasanton Weekly has written about Mr. Cordtz, especially, as the Matt Drudge of Pleasanton. A Grassroots Video television program, emanating in Livermore, featured Mr. Cordtz and Mr. Jordan in one of their feature presentations in May of 2002. In fact, Mr. Cordtz has sought to be even higher profile by using the Farmer’s Market as a soap box for anyone who will pay attention (just listening was not an option). Opinion Pleasanton has been blamed by local politicians for torpedoing ex-mayor Tom Pico’s bid for the state assembly seat now occupied by Assemblyman Alberto Torrico for a hit-piece that falsely claimed that Mr. Pico conducted overseas boondoggle travel. Opinion Pleasanton was exonerated because the trip we faulted Mr. Pico for taking was a mayor’s conference trip to Washington D.C. to “speak with the Dublin mayor” when he could have traveled to Dublin (California not Ireland) to meet with his mayoral counterpart. The high-profile Sacramento public relations firm elected to point the finger at Opinion Pleasanton when it was clearly their opposition researcher who dyslexicly read Dublin Ireland instead of Dublin, California. They also misinterpreted the Opinion Pleasanton comments that Mr. Pico should have not gone to China (not paid for by the city) and should have saved the city money by staying home to make important, timely budget decisions.

If anyone is interested in the bone fides of Opinion Pleasanton, Mr. Cordtz is a concerned and involved Pleasanton resident who has a wealth of institutional knowledge about the workings of Pleasanton’s City Hall and of Pleasanton politics and is a student of state and national government and politics. Mr. Jordan is a published author who burnishes Mr. Cordtz’s editorial offerings.

Opinion Pleasanton would like to find itself in more hands or, more appropriately, on more screens. Opinion Pleasanton has an extensive e-mail list from city committee meetings, political campaigns, and city council correspondence to broadcast its monthly offerings. The list has not been assembled because Opinion Pleasanton respects the rights of those people to remain anonymous to commercial or at least public ventures—Opinion Pleasanton has no advertising and is privately funded. Opinion Pleasanton is considering asking readers to subscribe, for free, so that issues will show up in e-mail boxes when published. (We will let you know how that program is going.)

The press (TV and print) is behind much of the bad government (at all levels) in the United States. It is left leaning—as they say, that is settled sociology. What is more, it is a little like George Orwell’s 1984—good is bad and bad is good. Opinion Pleasanton, on the other hand, is unabashedly conservative and makes that pretty clear in every piece written. In other words, there are no claims of objectivity.

Opinion Pleasanton supports the Pleasanton Weekly in its reporting of the City Council and various commissions. One need not be at the meeting when you have TV 30 and now the city’s new and much improved website to view the meetings. Admittedly, the nuances of the meetings go unobserved when viewed on TV and on the Internet. However, the meeting facts can easily be assembled from watching the tube or monitor. Nuance, if it is needed at all, can be easily followed up by reporters the next day. The usual suspects at the meetings are more than happy to oblige the reporters—especially the self important, self-absorbed red shirts—many of whom have successfully cowed the council on a number issues including rent control and a Home Depot development.

Finally, Opinion Pleasanton believes in limited government, capitalism, and the first amendment. That allows us to say that in Pleasanton, eco-extremists and social engineers threaten those principles with long-term indebtedness to be green for the sake of being green and for subsidizing housing because it feels good. (Their inclusionary housing ideas would subsidize the financially qualified—namely public safety personnel, and schoolteachers who earn substantial salaries and generous retirement benefits and are in their peak earning years.) Over the years, they have also approved city employee wage and benefit schedules that are unsustainable and have refused to bell that cat.

Therefore, Mr. Cordtz and Mr. Jordan are far from being invisible.

News Opinion

 

Oak Grove travesty

Kay Ayala should have circulated her petition correctly. Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch should permanently enjoin the Pleasanton City Council from certifying Ms. Ayala’s referendum petition.

More importantly, the Pleasanton City Council should fast track Jennifer and Frederic Lin’s Oak Grove project so that Ms. Ayala and a small cadre of NIMBYs will not be able to delay it any longer.

Enough is enough.

If need be, a grading permit should be issued and a group of volunteers should go out to Oak Grove and shovel a few shovels of dirt just to get the ball rolling.

 

Guest Opinion

 

Gerry Brunken wants to keep CTV Channel 30

In the last Opinion Pleasanton Poll, Gerry Brunken writes that watching city meetings on Channel 30 is better than sitting in the audience suffering long-running meetings that often run past his bedtime. He says, “I believe in this channel…If the mayors cannot fix the financial crunch, it bodes ill for how they are seeking to govern their communities. I wish them well. CT [community television] is a valuable asset.”

In the Pleasanton Weekly Town Square, John Smith and Beth had an interesting running discussion on the Pleasanton Heritage Committee. Mr. Smith says “doesn’t the city already have enough professional review (red tape) process in place?” Beth responds to Mr. Smith that she is “so sorry you think professional review equals red tape.”

The Pleasanton Heritage Committee is not professional review. It is grassroots activism that creates red tape. Professional review is the city planning and building departments. Red tape is peer review and EIRs.

Joel Olney, in a Valley Times letter to the editor says that closing parks to balance the state budget “shows just how out of whack our government is.” Mr. Olney says that we should “…solve this fiscal crisis by raising taxes or cutting spending, not smoke and mirrors.” Bravo to the cutting spending half of Mr. Olney’s prescription.

Judy, Judy, Judy. Judy Symcox says in a Pleasanton Weekly letter to the editor in February, “I strongly oppose a paper as small as the Weekly offering partisan opinion or endorsements…Since a weekly cannot afford several qualified political writers, I don’t think it appropriate to offer partisan recommendations.” What? Small papers cannot have political opinions? Weekly newspapers do not have qualified editors?

Judy, Paulette Kenyon. Paulette, Judy Symcox.

 

 

 

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