After watching the video of the Council Testimony the other night , there were several points made that need some further scrutiny.
Is the Prison being paid to maintain the Sports Park?
The young man who represented skaters that warned Council "not to steal the skate park twice!"......That's a much bigger story! The skate park that exists now was actually built with great reluctance by Diane Rose's Political Group....although in the end they tried as usual to get control of the citizens group and then take all the credit.( HEY GIRLFRIEND! kudos!)
I know that there are certain people in the community who had gone through old minutes of previous council meetings and had discovered that monies that had once been allocated to build a skatepark went somewhere else or were just gone? That's something I used to spend a lot more time doing...going through boring public records documents looking for clues. When citizen John Carr confronted Rose, McCoy,, McLean and Winter about where the $10,000 Sony Pictures had gone along with other money they had collected for a skate park; Rose said, "It's in a box!" Fred McLean nodded like a bobblehead in agreement as Rose repeated that the money was in a box. She didn't say it's in an account or it's in trust...she said; "IT'S IN A BOX", and Fred nodded in Agreement as if he himself had seen this box full of money! Of course Fred thought that Diane Rose made the sun and moon go up and down and had invented sliced bread too!
There are several of us in the community that have made a study of public records. While Public Records are often written in such a matter to actually try to obfiscate what's going on....sometimes the obfiscation is a bigger give away than the actual discription. When you can find documents that reference each other or documents that show parties were copied that told you those documents didn't exist. If you catch my drift...We have been playing detective investigators into ratified published minutes....and then there's usually what really happened.
I won't reveal any names of the good citizens that researched this particular subject but, at some point....the Council was somehow mysteriously forced or shamed into actually commencing with the current version of the skate park. I have no way of knowing if a Grand Jury or D.A. or other agency told them they'd better build a skate park if they had allocated the money for it or otherwise they might be subject to prosecution for Fraud and Embezzlement of Money???Seems that ratified minutes showed that money had been allocated for a non-existent skate park. That's when they started talking serious about building this current version and subsiquently Tony Hawk became involved. I don't know if the Sony Lord's of Dog Town $10k (or the other money McCoy leaned on the Location Manager for in excess of the originally agreed donation for a skate park of $10k.That's first hand from the Location Manger to me! They probably pissed that away to their insider consultant and got half of it back in political donations? But when citizens asked for their second Skate Park...the one you have now....they couldn't find that money and other money that had been raised.
We can't ask Fred where that box was anymore ,since he has since passed away and Diane Rose Stole his seat and the majority back on Council without due civil process or an election.Bobby Patton has become that seat warmer. Is the skate park something these politicians want to brag about and take credit for.....of course! As long as they can spin it like they are the good guys that made it happen. It actually happened because certain parties had to come up with the money that according to old minutes had already been allocated for the non-existent skate park at the time.
The SKATE PARK has been somewhat of an Albatross for Diane Rose , McCoy and Winter who also did other land deals between the City and the YMCA. Winter and McCoy both voted on the M.O.U. for Imperial Beach property occupied by Camp Surf at Carnation and Silver Strand Blvd.Within 500 feet of both of their primary residences. A triange of land returned to I.B. that was taken under the War Powers Act in the 1940's.That title has never been transferred from US Government Ownership to Imperial Beach Ownership. There is a sort of 3 handed deal with a Memorandum of Understanding. Let the YMCA pay rent on that land too? Or give it back to the City. Diane Rose has since become affiliated with the Camping Board at the YMCA. Perhaps she would like to disclose her relationship with the YMCA in greater detail to put citizens at ease that there is no political favoritism or clout being flexed. Just because an organization is a non-profit doesn't mean that nobody can profit. If you load up the board of directors with political hacks and big donors....you can take over even the best non-profit if you want to. Just takes members and money.
The Citizens Coalition has already been attacked by City Council and Staff. Yes...That's right. An Overt Attempt to Dilute or Break up the new Parks & Recreation Coalition.There is an allegation that Mayor Janney had a private meeting with the Little League and pretty much offered them Carte Blanch ...whatever they wanted....if they would throw Girls Softball, the Boys and Girls Club and Skate Park Folks under the bus! Janney openly offered Little League Freebies....Just stab all these other folks that supported you in the back and throw them under the bus ! To the character of the Coaltion Members: I applaud you for staying together through thick and thin....
and to the Character of the Current Mayor for his 'LAME BUT PRE-MEDITATED ATTEMPT TO UNDERMINE THE COALITION"... to forward his ends...YMCA DOMINATION of Parks and Recreation in the South Bay. You should be ashamed and embarrassed. You should humble yourself and resign! You have shown yourself to not be a friend of the average citizen.
To Diane Rose....You may not be sitting up at the Dias...But Wade, Brown, Lyon, Janney, Bragg, Patton and Ed Spriggs probably all owe you for political support or their very jobs. Are you the principal behind the scenes that's trying to put the YMCA in charge of city parks?
I know the citizens of I.B. are as sincere and solemn about this Sports Park Issue as if it was their community church you were trying to take away. So the Imperial Beach City Council only delayed the vote for two weeks on the YMCA lease of the Parks. It's not over. There will be another vote on the 26th. Will they fake or stage some event to prevent the public from attending at the last minute?
A couple of the Council Members are smart enough to realize that Staff is leading them down a RAT HOLE.....they might not want to go down?....especially if they ever hope to get re-elected.
I am so proud of the citizen's resolve to take control back away from City Staff and an incompetent corrupt City Council. Past Councils are Especially Included as well as their co-conspirators. If the Mayor and Staff try to do an end run on the Sports Park Issue....which they have already tried to do...but if they try to circumvent the overwhelming will of the general public and move forward with the YMCA deal or they try to dissect or corrupt the work of the citizens' coalition again....I dare say there are already about 900 names on the first petition.
How hard do you think it would be to circulate a recall petition with a bunch of cute little little leage and girls softball kids and clipboards going door to door? NO...WE'RE NOT SELLING COOKIES. WE'RE POLITICAL ACTIVISTS AND WE'RE TAKING OUR CITY BACK....WOULD YOU SIGN THE PETITION OR REGISTER TO VOTE HERE? PLEASE! I'M JUST A KID AND I CAN'T VOTE BUT THEY'RE TRYING TO STEAL OUR PARKS AWAY!
The Future of Imperial Beach is in it's youth. When they become politically active....BROWN, WADE JANNEY AND BRAGG ARE SCREWED....KIDS ARE THE REAL MAJORITY ! (and their parents vote too!)
For my own personal reasons I'd kind of like to see Staff and Janney continue trying to bulldoze this issue as they have all along. Just for the entertainment value! No offense to the brave folks fighting for this. I am personally confident that the Public Parks are going to STAY PUBLIC in Imperial Beach FOREVER!!...even if it goes all the way to the Supreme Court!
