Why new Mayor Greg Sebourn is such a huge disappointment to many who voted to re-elect him to the Fullerton City Council?
I REPORT, YOU DECIDE-By Barry Levinson
A week ago I posted an article on The Fullerton Informer website entitled “Fullerton Police Chief Dan Hughes — yet another look (Originally posted June 9, 2014; Edited with a few additional comments on January 14, 2015 including new P.S.), by BARRY LEVINSON
https://thefullertoninformer.com/#sthash.xb43kL8z.dpuf
It concerned Fullerton’s Police Chief Dan Hughes.
That post dealt with getting answers to important questions that the chief has been silent on for far too long. Mayor Sebourn immediately removed that shared post and now he has changed his settings to not allow me to post at all on his Facebook page.
Greg Seabourn
I am saddened that questions that he should be demanding Dan Hughes answer are apparently questions that he does not want to be associated with at all. I have been a Fullerton activist for limited government, civil liberties, safety especially for all our children and open and transparent government for the past 5 years. I also endorsed Greg for reelection. Yet despite all this he followed the council majority crowd by attempting to lynch me at an October 2014 council meeting (I believe they call that a piling on penalty in football) without knowing the facts or asking for the city video which proved all alleged misdemeanor charges hoisted against me by our Police Chief Dan Hughes to be completely bogus. However, there has been no public apology or even a simple mea culpa from our new Mayor. It is now way overdue Mayor Sebourn and I will graciously accept it, if you decide to do the right thing.
https://thefullertoninformer.com/the-lynching/
Now as Mayor one of his first pieces of business in this new-year was
to reassert a 30-minute limit for public comments at the front end of
city council meetings.
As someone, who has regularly attended the Fullerton city council meetings for the past 5 years, I can attest that many meetings had public comments lasting much more than 30 minutes. In fact after the Kelly Thomas brutal death by members of the FPD, public comments many times ran one to two hours and beyond. This is one of the few ways the public has the opportunity to ask questions and to attempt to hold all our public officials accountable in a public forum.
It is my understanding that at the start of each new council, the Mayor can set the meeting criteria including the length of each public comment speaker as well as the limit if any for all public comments. Yet instead of speaking out as the public’s representative and stating how important it is to allow the public the ability to speak before council you thought it necessary to ride rough shot over the public and their rights.
Shame on you Mayor Sebourn for setting rules that
will help limit free speech and the exchange of ideas during our
council meetings.
I recently recalled that former Mayor Chaffee seeing a large group of speakers waiting to speak before the council attempted to reduce each person’s time from 3 minutes down to 2 minutes to try to keep the total time within 30 minutes. I also recall that the remaining four council members all voted him down.
4 more years of this Greg?
Greg Sebourn is the same Mayor who at a recent Fullerton California Republican Assembly meeting lectured about the importance of knowing and supporting the Republican Party platform. I must have missed the part that states it is the Republican Party’s goal to limit our free speech before our elected officials. Mayor you talked the talk at that CRA meeting but you certainly did not practice it at the last Fullerton City Council meeting.
Mayor Sebourn, Conservative Republicans do not limit free speech but rather welcome and celebrate it.
P.S.
I am sure it was not only conservatives that were very unhappy with the Mayor’s need to greatly limit our free speech I hope all of you make your opinions known to Mayor Sebourn at our next council meeting.
Sincerely,
Barry Levinson
#1 by Barry Levinson on February 1, 2015 - 8:44 pm
It is very clear to me that any council member who is in favor of limiting the public comments segment at each council meeting to a measly 30 minutes is really looking to limit the public’s voice and influence at council meetings.
Mayor Sebourn I think it is such a shame that you did not make your position on public comments clear to us prior to the last election. For if you had made that known to us, I am fairly certain that you would not now be representing us on that dais.
As Mayor you set the tone for every meeting. You conduct each meeting. As such when the FPD showed no interest in asking for Ms. Tamika Johnson’s contact information, you should have stepped up and done so. You also should have stated for the record that her allegations were very serious and that you as Mayor would do everything you could to see to it that this allegation was thoroughly investigated. I truly believe that is not too much to expect of any Mayor of any City. You did neither of these things. Instead that night you said it was important to set the ground rules for limiting public comments to a maximum of 30 minutes.
It is not too late to reverse course on both these subjects.
Leaders lead and we anxiously await to see if going forward you not just hold the title of Mayor but act like a Mayor as well.
#2 by Anonymous on February 1, 2015 - 10:01 pm
Funny how all you Bushala groupies are all turning on each other. You guys are a joke.
Don’t forget to thank Greg for his vote on the sheriff and by the way, next time you see Travis tell him thanks for the memories, I mean the fireworks. Ha ha ha ha.
#3 by Mark Powell on February 2, 2015 - 7:06 am
Anonymous,
I honestly don’t believe that Council Woman Jennifer Fitzgerald fancies herself as what you refer to as a “Bushala Groupie” for her support of seeking a bid from the Sheriff’s Department, however we’re all entitled to our own opinion eh?
http://www.fullertonsfuture.org/2012/council-candidate-supports-ocsd-preliminary-analysis/
I wonder why the Fullerton Police Officers Association never spent a dime of their money opposing Jennifer Fitzgerald’s candidacy for city council in 2012?
Yet they spent tens of thousands of dollars opposing residents like Bruce Whitaker who oppose their tactics for favorable labor negotiations.
Sound familiar Costa Mesa?
Bye the bye…
Did you notice that in 2012 the Costa Mesa, CA. Police Officers Association donated $1,000 to the Fullerton Police Officers Association to use against Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Kiger in our city council election that year?
I did.
Read on….
http://www.latimes.com/local/orangecounty/la-me-1217-private-eyes-20141217-story.html