Jim Wood for losing hiscool while trying to put a sock in Councilman

Tag : finger sock


A brick – the Where's Your Muzzle? award – to Oceanside Mayor Jim Wood for losing hiscool while trying to put a sock in Councilman Rocky Chavez duringlast week's testy debate about the sale of city-owned land underthe Marina Towers condominiums.

“You sit there and smirk,” Wood barked at Chavez, thelone council opponent to the $5 million sale to condo owners.

Seizing on an opportunity to show up Wood, Chavez succeeded inwinning a 3-2 vote to permit himself to speak. (Wood told Chavez hecouldn't speak, and Councilwoman Esther Sanchez voted with Woodthat Chavez shut up.)

If you're wondering why Wood's skin seems so thin, remember theseason.

The mayor is running for re-election, and Chavez, who wasre-elected to the council two years ago, is taking another shot atWood's chair.

“I lost my temper a little bit,” Wood admitted later.

You think?

And while we're on the subject of intemperance on the dais, a brick – the Way Over the Top award – to Oceanside Councilman JerryKern for rushing into the realm of arguable slander when, alsoduring the Marina Towers debate, he called the Citizens for thePreservation of Parks and Beaches “the most dishonest,disingenuous and deceitful group of people,” adding that thedescription fits “anyone who associates with thisgroup.”

And who would be the two prominent Oceanside activists whobasically comprise the group that opposes the Marina Towers sale?

Carolyn Krammer and former Councilwoman Shari Mackin.

Ouch.

A brick – the Jumping Off the Sinking School award – to RockyChavez for what came off as a politically calculated bailout fromthe five-year-old charter school into which he poured his heart,soul – and his money.

In the last week of June, Chavez, the CEO of Oceanside's School ofBusiness & Technology, announced that he was leaving his postto focus his energies on running for mayor.

Made sense at the time. Chavez will have to run a great campaign toconvince voters of two things: Wood must go and the retired Marinecolonel should replace him.

Then, on July 9, the Oceanside school district unceremoniouslyyanked the school's charter, citing low enrollment and mountingdebt.

The highly literate Chavez, one assumes, was in a better positionthan anyone to read the writing on the wall.

Maybe it's savvy politics to bolt before the ship goes down, but itisn't exactly what captains are supposed to do.

A bouquet – the Right Balance award – to the District Attorney'sOffice for a reasonable decision in the Great Ramona Finger Swerve.

In charging Keith Alan Davis of Ramona with misdemeanor recklessdriving, the prosecutor sends the message that it's not acceptableto swerve close to protesters and physically scare them.

Fortunately, the DA didn't bite on the stupid upraised middlefinger angle.

The ubiquitous gesture of strenuous disagreement is protectedspeech, particularly when demonstrators take to the street withprovocative signs.

Protesters must expect to be verbally abused, not physicallythreatened.

A brick – the Wishful Thinking award – to a MiraCosta College officialfor spinning the disposal of 1,377 palm trees as an importantpassage in the scandal that decimated the ranks of theadministration while squandering millions of dollars onquestionable settlements and attorney fees.

“Now it's over,” Jim Austin, a MiraCosta vicepresident, said of what he hoped was “a passage to getthrough this very, very unfortunate episode.”

The reality is, the palm trees were pawns in a power play pittingthe former president and the board majority against the faculty andthe board minority. The reverberations of that clash of wills arestill being felt on campus.

The trees can be destroyed, sold or retained as educational tools,but their final disposition is but a blip on the screen.

Until a lawsuit alleging an illegal gift to former PresidentVictoria Muñoz Richart is settled, the scandal is not over.