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 11, 2015 - 2:46 pm
At the last Fullerton Council Meeting I raised the issue of limiting the peoples’ right to address the city council members on any city related topic to a maximum of only 30 minutes.
Mayor Sebourn has continued the policy of having multiple presentations (some of them quite lengthy) at the beginning of council meetings that rarely have anything directly to do with city business. Yet that continues while the Mayor has stated he will only allow a maximum of 30 minutes for the public at the front end of those same meetings.
This is not how a city council should conduct their public meetings. It is an affront to representative democracy.
I raised the issue directly to Mayor Sebourn and he not only did not address the subject at that time but did not feel it necessary to respond to my concerns at any time during the entire meeting.
Anyone can make a mistake and when it is pointed out to them they have the opportunity to correct that mistake. At this stage it does not appear that Mayor Sebourn believes that this arbitrary limitation of public speech is an issue that he needs to address and/or correct.
#2 by Tony's van on February 11, 2015 - 4:14 pm
What did you expect? He is the single reason that the FPD still gets to run wild on the streets of Fullerton. Time limits on comments are what you are worried about right now? He has much in store for all of you Bushala groupies over the next four years.
#3 by RS on February 18, 2015 - 11:29 am
Greg is a good man. You people don’t know him and you say things about him that are not true. No wonder nobody cares what any of you haters on this stupid conspiracy hate blog think.
#4 by George Orwell Reborn on February 18, 2015 - 2:03 pm
RS your comments are empty ones unless you back up your allegations with facts. What things have been said about Mayor Sebourn that are not accurate?
RS you are using Saul Alinsky tactics by attacking this blog rather than providing specifics to support your unfounded allegations. This tactic is employed when the presenter has nothing of substance to provide to the readership.
#5 by just another politician on February 18, 2015 - 4:46 pm
Greg S. has shown himself to be nothing more than a status quo politician. That statement is based on his actions, nothing more.