Miguel…don’t tase us bro!

Public access to the goings on of Government in general…has
always been a rather large bone of contention. Trying to find
out what is going on at City Hall seems to be the toughest find
of all. Who owns what? What areas are being redeveloped? What
new developer has raised the spectre of high rise in residential
neighborhoods? Who is who in the zoo?

OK, now we are not citizens of Santa Ana. We do like the Mayor
Pulido, Miguel….however, because he seems like a nice guy
and he has actually responded to our concerns as transients…
traversing through his bailiwick! What has us concerned is his
lack of true understanding regarding “full disclosure” and
“forthcoming elected government”. Here in Newport Beach, we are
no strangers to “occluded government”. For years, a seeming
blackout had existed. Uncannily, in the recent few years……
activism has raised the action on the political table and we
finally have a digital signal from City Hall…reporting each
City Council meeting with clarity – finally. They even held on
to the terrible analogue video (which you couldn’t see well)
and the awful sad analogue sound ( which you couldn’t hear
very well!) They seemingly did everything in their power to
make watching the events at City Hall….miserable. Luckily,
a couple of years ago….Newport Beach got with the program
…and offered City Council Meetings available on the Internet
….from the City website! Then we even finally got our new
digital cameras……hey, what can happen next?

At any rate, whether Mayor Pulido wants his meetings with
Spanish sub-titles, three dimensional Game Boy additions, or
Inter-active voting messages…..the time has come! When
Council person Martinez asked for a Second to televising
Council meetings…she couldn’t even muster one other vote!
Mayor Pulido saying that Government Officials “get too
nervous on TV”….”and most work is done behind closed doors”
is a total crack up. What that means of course is: “We have
some terrible actors…that are going to let the cat out of
the bag….and I will have no control!” Finally, Mayor Pulido
to his credit…did offer ONE of the TWO monthly meetings to
be televised. But this is certainly a big time discraceful
example of “occulded government” at its best! Welcome to the
New Digital World Mr. Mayor! There are no more 25 cent haircuts
or 30 cent a gallon gasoline either! You need to broadcast what
you do or don’t do as an elected official. That is what you
get paid for…remember?

Most larger cities like Los Angeles, offer School Board
Meetings and even Sub-Committee Meetings like the Federal
Mandate for Oversight of the LAPD on Television….to the
Public. Many Cities even offer Planning Commission Meetings
too! It is time to get with the program Mr. Mayor and get on
board the Digital Express to New Open Techy Government. Yes,
you will get more letters to answer. Yes, you will get more
people showing up at City Council meetings. Yes, you will
have more and more people asking to serve on various City
Committees and Commissions. Yes, you will have an assortment
of “GadFlys” circling every meeting…that will have to be
dealt with in a gentle fashion. Yes, it will be both quite
“inconvenient” and disturbing – but you gotta do it – and
you gotta do it bigtime!

Mr. Mayor, time to step up to the plate and get ahead of the
curve rather than trying to hit from behind the curve! Your
community needs meetings that include both sub-titles in Spanish
and signage for the hearing impaired! You need to contact those
big time and monied supporters of yours and have them give
you a political hand to make your City….a Free Wi-Fi Zone,
available City Council meetings all archived on the City
Website and make sure that the Planning Commission meetings
wind up being televised as well – and Archived, of course!

How many people does the City of Santa Ana serve again? 340 to
350,000 citizens you say? And you don’t offer televised and open
government? Come on now….even Newport Beach televises its
meetings. How about Huntington Beach..yep! How about Laguna
Beach….for many, many, many years! Probably, before TV!!!

Buenos Dias to the digital age Mayor Pulido!


About Ron & Anna Winship

Independent News Producers/Writers and Directors for Parker-Longbow Productions. Independent Programming which includes a broad variety of Political, Entertainment and Professional Personalities. Cutting Edge - a talk show...is the flagship of over 30 URL websites developed or under development. The Winships have been blogging for the Orange Juice since back when nickels had buffalos on them, and men wore onions attached to their belts, because it was the fashion back then.