Westminster's City Council meeting was hot and sweaty.  The air conditioning at the last two meetings have left council faithfuls and other attendees fanning themselves with the agenda.

But the more important part is that this City Council has always allowed all speakers who come up during Oral Communications to talk on any topic they wanted to.  We have had representatives of the Ocean Outfall group come a couple of years ago and speak meeting after meeting about a proposal on the ballot to treat 100% of the waste water coming out of the Orange County Sanitation District (not under the council's purview).  A wonderful gentleman name Phil Hodgetts has gotten up repeatedly and spoken on energy issues in general (again not under the council's purview).  Darrel Nolta has addressed just about every subject known to man and God (some of which were not under the purview of the City Council).  Whether or not these issues were under the purview of this council or the City of Westminster has been of little concern to our council who has always allowed maximum FREE SPEECH during Oral Communications.  When Measure M was on the Ballot, Kermit Marsh gave his opinion on that.  I cannot recall the other ballot measures but I know there are more that he has given his opinion on at these meetings sitting as a council member.  Other ballot measures that had nothing to do with Westminster have been discussed by other council members on TV and been commented on widely by constituents.

But last night, something was different....about a School Bond Issue, Measure O.....

Judy Ahrens, a former School Board Member and one of many people opposing the $130,000,000 bond issue being proposed by the Westminster School District (MEASURE "O") got up during Oral Communications to speak about this measure which affects every taxpayer in Westminster.

 Now I must preface this by relating to you the "stern warning" that Kermit Marsh gave at the last meeting that he didn't want Oral Communications turned into a political forum over a school board measure that the city council had no purview over.  He warned that Oral Communications had always been allowed the maximum flexibility, but since 4 officials from the School Board came and spoke about Measure O (in support of) and several citizens spoke against it; apparently he felt it was warming to be a continuous issue.  (I think the Ocean Outfall group came to three meetings with several speakers to address their measure.)

As Judy Ahrens began her speech, she got a ways through it and was interrupted by Councilman Marsh who again told her they didn't want the City Council to be turned into a forum for this issue.   He indicated that he had told the school district personnel the same thing and they would not be there.  Apparently, they were going to come talk to the issue again as well.  I think there is a difference when the officials of the School District want to come speak to the issue (some don't even live in Westminster), and when residents, who will be affected by a tax increase want to talk about it.

Sadly, this "issue" while not directly under the purview of the Westminster City Council, does affect every citizen that owns property in the City of Westminster.  And, courageously, Judy attempted to continue her speech and finished.  Then followed another resident who spoke around the issue until his closing line when he delivered his punch line on the issue and then left the podium..  Then I addressed the council on a few issues, and at the end of my communications, I stated that there was one more issue I wanted to talk about but wasn't allowed to and that was Measure "O', to which I am opposed.

I also showed a local paper advertisement that was announcing the coming Founders Day Celebration which just happened to be printed under a comment from a flyer from the Westminster Teacher's Association during the last election in '06 when they were supporting Mangold, Nguyen and Bridgewaters which stated our schools were well maintained. Somehow that got shown on the overhead as well as the Founder's Day ad.

Now, another gentleman currently running for the Huntington Beach Union High School District, John Briscoe, has tested this in court, and won.  He previously sued a public entity that did not allow him to speak during oral communications and a court supported him and ruled in his favor even though the issue did not fall within the purview of the entity before which he spoke, it was "oral communications" and free speech was honored.

As every one knows, I am a supporter of both Margie Rice and Kermit Marsh.  But I feel they have let outside influence enter into their decision to bar citizens from talking about Measure O at the televised Oral Communications portion of the City Council meeting.  Why do I think this?  Because these two council people have been the most "pro free speech" council members on this council in decades.

That the Westminster School District has spent over $60,000 advertising and promoting the passage of Measure O is ludicrous.  I thought there were laws against that.  If you have driven through Westminster lately you will see hundreds of signs reading "YES ON "O"".  Residents have received at least three mailers with regards to this measure promoting yes votes; paid for by?  The School District?  Your tax dollars at work, to further tax you! 

While the School District has resources to promote this measure, what resources do individual citizens have to tell the rest of Westminster property owners what the real consequences the passage of measure "O" will be on their taxes?  Nada, nothing, zippo.  A few concerned citizens are printing some flyers in an scattered effort to alert the citizens of Westminster to "beware" of Measure "O", but they don't have the resources that the School District does in promoting the measure.  This seems unfair and unbalanced.

Seemingly, the only course that regular citizens have is to come to the Council Meeting and "get the word out" on TV...as that is their only resource..they cannot match the $60,000 promotional campaign launched by the school.

I was really happy to hear, during "Council Comments" Councilman Frank Fry say that there are too many bond issues on the ballot and he votes no on them, and if you want your taxes raised, to go ahead and vote "yes", but if you don't then vote "no".   Go Frank!!!

THANK YOU FRANK FRY!