Is the Palm Springs City Council race over?
 | Desert Observer's Page Palm Springs, CA. The Palm Springs city council race is over - or at leastit is for me. I don't mean we won't see candidates campaigning, havemuch to laugh about, note questionable foot-in-mouth inaccuracies, orreach conclusions some have faulty pilot lights resulting innon-functioning upstairs burners. It's over because the incumbents werefirst out the starting gate (actually, they never stopped for the gate)and the race is theirs to lose. Council members Ginny "Ma" Foat and Chris "Micro Manager" Millshave name recognition, campaign bank accounts, mailing lists, politicalparty support, large followings, and track records that appeal tosignificant segments of their constituents. I don't see either losingthis time around. |
Eight challengers have signed on to run for council seats. Only two are serious contenders and neither can boast credentials and campaign assets equal to the incumbents. All eight waited far to long before entering the race, none have significant name recognition, hefty bank accounts, extensive mailing lists (few could afford the postage if they did have large lists), enthusiastic political party support, large followings or appealing track records. If the others stood a chance here are some of the background information categories I'd look for in assessing candidates (in no particular order).
- Income Producing Expertise, as an employee or entrepreneur
- Age
- Education and Graduate Degree Major(s)
- Experience and Knowledge
- Community Involvement Track Record
- Neighborhood vs Business Community Tilt
- Budgeting and Financial Skills
- Bipartisan Consensus-building Talent
- Accuracy in statements and campaign platform issues
- Commonsense
- Intelligence (isn't always partnered with commonsense)
- Obvious arrogance and inflated sense of self-importance
- Campaign Platform base position - Positive or Negative
I plan on attending as many candidate forums as possible for campaign platforms often evolve after a candidate has participated in a few question and answer sessions. My interest will be in learning how much candidates really know about our City and its local government. While most candidates will probably talk about "downtown" (and I'll give minus points to each one who claims s/he knows how to fix things), John Wessman, BID, high employee salaries, the current City Council, and the budget, I'll be listening closely for those who talk about neighborhood issues. The condition of street surfaces and potholes, traffic - bicycling - pedestrian concerns, noise issues, code violation enforcement, crime and safety, public area cleanliness, continuous uncoordinated street construction activities, park facilities and maintenance, homelessness, animal control and welfare, genuine emergency planning and preparedness, and environmentalism commitment and support. I also hope to hear questions such as "Why does the council draw 12 monthly paychecks for only 11 months work?" (August is their do-nothing month), "Why is Palm Desert, instead of Palm Springs, the most environmentally supportive valley city?", "When will the City get serious about citizen recruitment to form a cadre ready to deal with emergencies?", "Why are there so few painted pedestrian crosswalks in Palm Springs", "Why won't the city council create a citizens Finance Commission?", "Does true representation exist when nearly all candidates reside in one area of the City?", and "What is his/her position regarding the proposed Cell Phone utility tax?"
Since I believe incumbents will win the only suspense for me on ballot box day will be the vote total rankings of the other candidates. Here's the list in alphabetic order.
- Alexander Dobrecevic, age 19, student, KNEWS radio intern, airport lost baggage department employee
- Michael Gallardo, age 43, publisher/editor of Talk Magazine and Confession Nightclub bartender
- Eloise Garcia-Mohsin, an artist, former Phoenix Ritz-Carlton hotel security boss, National Inquirer confidential source
- Jim Osterberger, co-owner of Spurline, a video lounge bar
- Drew Sweatte, age 22, BodyFactory digital & online marketing coordinator, Log Cabin Republicans club officer
- John Tymon, singer/songwriter
- Mark Walthour, former city building permit technician
Bond Shands
Palm Springs
Get this- turns out that lil' Drew Sweatte blogs on mydesert.com as "Victory"
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While anything's possible, I notice that Victory has been blogging on MyDesert.com since at least 08/02/2007 and that date precedes Drew's reported relocation to Palm Springs. Drew blogged in 2008 under RedPSBoyz, and recently posted using it again and one of the two comments to that post is from Victory.
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If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
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