Audio: HMB’s sad, Bush-league press conference fails to answer questions

The city of Half Moon Bay is stonewalling its residents and the rest of the state on AB1991.

Half Moon Bay Review editor Clay Lambert has blogged that he’s having a hard time getting his calls returned by City Hall. I’ve made several calls to City Manager Marcia Raines since the settlement was announced, asking about envrionmental reviews of the Glencree property, but have never heard from her.

How can the community get its questions answered about AB1991? You’re only allowed to get its predigested spin, such as its most recent letter disputing the Coastal Commission’s arguments from Coastsider. The city will not talk to you.

Thursday, the city held a telephone press conference attempting to dispute the Coastal Commission’s negative assessment of AB1991 [click for MP3 recording].

The city’s spin machine was working overtime this afternoon. A number of folks, including myself, tried to get a question to Mayor Bonnie McClung, but access was so tightly controlled that only three reporters were able to ask a mere four questions. It was more like a George W. Bush White House press conference than a real Q&A about an important issue in our community.

Two of those four questions went unanswered. You can listen to Orrick attorney/flack Lanny Davis fail to deliver the details of a lawsuit which he claimed invalidated the Coastal Commission’s assertion that the inclusion of Glencree was arbitrary. And hear Mayor McClung fail to tell us the city’s cost for lobbying for AB1991.

At the end, Mr. Davis ran out the clock by describing the settlement as a deal which cannot be undone, but failed to mention who cut the deal and why it was structured the way it was.

No further questions were taken.