Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Coastsider endorses John Moseley for school board
It’s easy to endorse John Moseley for the board of the Cabrillo Unified School District. He has shown dedication to the board, puts the education of our children ahead of all other priorities, is easy to work with, and has managed to remain a centrist in a polarized environment.
John proved his level-headedness this summer, when he alone among the school board’s members voted against a resolution of support for AB1991—Half Moon Bay’s bailout bill that enriched a single developer by exchanging decades of environmental protections for cash. John didn’t express an opinion one way or the other on the bill, but he did say that the vote would unnecessarily polarize the community. This is a commonsense position that demonstrates that John’s sole priority is the district and its students.
The job of the board is to hire and supervise the district’s superintendent. The superintendent runs the district and sets the policies, which should serve one purpose: the education of the community’s children. The board member’s fiduciary duty is to make sure the superintendent spends the taxpayers’ education money wisely. The board should be made up of smart, hardworking, representative people who are not confused about their duty and who—whenever possible—avoid running amok.
I recommend you vote only for John Moseley although there is one other open position on the board and two other candidates.
In the 2006 CUSD board election I said you should only vote for Ken Johnson if you felt the need to vote for every open position on the ballot. I’m more certain of this in 2008 than in 2006. Ken is a better gadfly than he would be a board member. Ken has always been more ready to offer criticisms than concrete proposals for improving the schools, and that is my principal reason for not endorsing him. This year, he also showed poor judgment this year in squatting on the expired “electmoseley.com” domain with a website that suggested he was running with John Moseley, but that’s merely a sideshow.
Incumbent Charlie Gardner is a self-described “infrastructure advocate” who is on the board of a pro-development advocacy organization on the Coastside, plumped for the controversial Big Wave development while other CUSD board members were fighting for a parcel tax, has been working tirelessly for a wrong-headed highway bypass to solve traffic problems created in part by the school district, vigorously defends the CUSD’s divisive vote to support AB1991, has worked behind the scenes on various other development projects. I don’t believe Charlie understands the depth of the conflict of interest between his desire for more development on the Coastside and the needs of our school district.
Vote for John Moseley on Nov 4, and feel good about your decision. And then ask yourself why don’t more qualified moderates run for our school board?
Comments
“Et tu, Brute?” - Barry,
We will have to agree to disagree about the facts and the results. I think the School Board and District needs Change and apparently you don’t.
Four years ago I read your endorsement. I also looked at the Garner and Moseley Smart Voter pages and their websites, ElectGardener and ElectMoseley dot com - they were all the same, put up by the same person. Then I found a single ‘door hanger’ on my front door for Garner and Moseley running like twins!
I cast a single vote for Jonathan Lundell only! Too many did otherwise and all on the Coastside have suffered since.
I attended a school Board meeting where a retiring Board member, Ruth Palmer (1992-2004), was verbally assaulting Jonathan for running for the School Board without children in the district. First time I have ever seen someone criticized for not having a conflict of interest. You see, Ruth joined the board to see extra service for her special needs child and was leaving the board because legally the child was no longer eligible, tho she sought more services.
Re-read YOUR endorsement for Pam Fisher - might it be better with out the ‘however’ paragraph?
There are only three end states:
1 Johnson - Moseley — My preference
2 Garner - Moseley — Your preference
3 Johnson - Garner — not numerically possible
and as pointed out, a ‘spot’ vote, vote for Ken Johnson only, Is the only way to change CUSD
Moseley was the top vote getter four years ago, and will be the top this time, endorsed by the Charlie’s mythical CCF-PCF and LCP !
The Review I understand, they want Gardner and Moseley - If I was running unopposed, they would endorse “Write In” They like things as they are!
Barry, Is this a new ‘Don’t Change a thing about the School District”? You need to attend more than one meeting in four years.
Jonathan L should be running for re-election and Pam F should be on the board.
The ElectGardener and ElectMoseley dot com issue: and your mischaricataion:
- both registrations expired years ago
- their smart voter pages were copied from four years ago for both Gardener and Moseley to this years pages with the links to ElectGardener and ElectMoseley still in place
- it was months into the campaign and neither were registered for the campaign by them
- I registered the ElectMoseley in a stupid moment - it was publicly registered with no attempt to hide registration
BUT unlike chariction, I put up precisely what I was supporting, “Elect Moseley” with a quick cartoon like script saying Elect Moseley and Johnson’. If a sign is put on a front yard it says the person who put up the sign hopes the person is elected not that that candidate endorses them.
Gardener and Moseley Smartvoter sites soon had removed the links to the deceased ElectGardener and ElectMoseley sites.
The only link to the ElectMoseley site was from Moseley’s Smartvoter site.
I made no attempt to set links to the site.
On my part, it was a simple stupid prank.
Moseley made NO attempt to contact me!
I simply forgot about it.
He never mentioned it to me at the School Board meeting.
Then weeks later, simultaneously, snarky Clay put the post up you referenced and an email was sent to my campaign ‘support’ site requesting the ‘page be brought down’
As soon as I got the email, I put a ‘blue screen’ to the site. And confirmed it in a reply email.
I also sent an apology to John Moseley and offered to change the ‘A’ record to point to his host site, transfer or host a site for him.
Snaky Clay acknowledges that he got it wrong about his key claims!
Neither Gardener nor Moseley Smartvoter sites link to any web site - check it all out!
As to your: “why don’t more qualified moderates run for our school board?” You might start to answer your question be re-reading and analyzing your endorsement strategy.
I ran a candidate search for more than six months before the election and there was a parallel effort by CUSD teachers - I am the only one I could talk into it. I didn’t want to see Charlie Gardner run an unopposed victory lap. When that happened for the HMB City Council it collectively cost us who live in HMB $20,000,000.
As to my “concrete proposals” - you might try reading Coastsider.Com!
Later, we can sit around the campfire - you can sing Kumbaya and I’ll bring the marshmallows, my ‘Kabar’ firmly gripped between my teeth.
Ken Johnson
Barry forgot to mention Charles Gardner’s complicity in the sleazy anonymous attack advertisement against Jonathan Lundell in the 2004 school board election:
Gardner and Anonymous Attack Advertisement