Larimer calls for unity with finger-pointing and illogical bluster

"Honey, I just want you to know that I think you’ve made some pretty stupid decisions in the last couple of years. That’s why I think we should get married. If I had control of you, I could keep you from acting like such a bonehead. How about it?"

So begins the mysterious courtship ritual of Jim Larimer, County Coastside Water District director, in the Half Moon Bay Review this week.

Mr. Larimer wants to unify the Coastside under a single government. After all, he says, some of us have been acting like ninnies and someone needs to put a stop to it. But instead of arguing for a unified Coastside government, Larimer descends into sputtering irrelevance by confusing disagreement with anarchy. Take a look at some of his arguments:

• "This [Yamagiwa] ruling came about because the City Council legislated to expand the definition of a wetland beyond a reasonable common-sense definition in order to achieve political goals for more open space." First, the statement is false and the city has the court judgement to prove it.  Second, Larimer fails to expain what this has to do with unifying the Coastside government.

 

• "During the past 15 years, political factions have delayed replacing a worn out water main by nine years." In other words, if you disagree with Jim Larimer, you’re a faction, not a citizen.

 

• "A decade of opportunities for our children were squandered as we fought over building the first new school since the high school was completed in 1963."  This decade was squandered under our only Coastside-wide district: a school district with "Unified" in its name. How does support Larimer’s point that the Coastside’s goverment should be unified? It doesn’t, but it gives him one more opportunity to refight the battle that squandered a decade.

 

• "Disjunction has led to a monumental punitive legal liability for all of us - a bankrupting judgment against the city." Huh?  The road to Yamagiwa was paved with unanimous city council decisions going back to the first Reagan administration. Larimer blames legitimate disagreements today for the actions of a unified city twenty years ago. And he fails to explain how a unified Coastside government would solve the problem.

Here’s the crazy part: I agree with Larimer that the Coastside is a single community. But I don’t agree with him that legitimate civic disagreements are a problem we need solve. Call me romantic dope, but I don’t think you should begin a courtship by calling your intended a jackass.