Did the City use its resources to unfairly (illegally?) lobby the voters to Vote No on Measure M?

No. No one has shown a single example of a communication that the City expressly advocated a vote either for or against Measure M.

If something was so "secret" that nobody saw it how could the City have been communicating with anyone?

At the City Council Meeting last evening (11-18-2014) are comments made by Morris Brown regarding the files released to the Almanac regarding the work product produced by Malcolm Smith for the City.

These comments can be viewed at:

Web Link (3 minutes)

Also at this council meeting (11-18-2014), Elias Blawie spoke on this issue, and also about the practice of placing Public Comment deep into the Agenda, in this case over 2 hours into the agenda. Certainly not good practice -- possibly keeping the Public from coming up to speak.

Can be viewed at:

Web Link (3 minutes)

[Post removed. Please post your comments without negative characterizations of other posters. Ask your question once but please avoid repetitive posts.]

Morris, regular meetings of City Council always have Public Comment as item C, after Presentations and Proclamations and Commission Updates. That's always where it's been, unless it's a special meeting. Sometimes there are lots of proclamations and updates, and sometimes there aren't. It's not as if staff was intentionally making the public wait to make their comments last night. And it's the appropriate order- if the city wants to celebrate and honor a local good citizen with a proclamation, should that person have to sit through endless public comments first? I don't think so. It's not as if the only time to make public comment is at the very end of the agenda.

@Tunbridge Wells:

Last night's meeting (11-18-2014) had public comment placed behind several "presentations". These presentations were full blown consultant's reports and hardly of the kind that take 3 to 5 minutes each.

The net result was Public Comment did not take place until well over 2 hours into the meeting. This is hardly fair to the public that just wants to make a public comment, but has to wait over hours to comment.

This was unusual, but should have been predicted by Staff and public comment should have been moved up ahead of all of the consultant reports.

I fully agree with what Elias Blawie said in his comments about the issue. Future agendas should take into account just where to place public comments and I would suggest that the comment period should not be deeper than 30 minutes of the meeting.

At regular meetings public comment is always item C. I have been at other council meetings where there have been presentations and so forth and people have asked if public comment was moved back on purpose, and I've told them no, this is the point in the agenda where council takes public comment. Sometimes council reaches the public comment section fifteen or twenty minutes into the meeting, sometimes it takes longer. There are a lot of people with things to say at council meetings, not everyone can be accommodated in the first thirty minutes. You can always send an email to council if you don't want to wait to speak.

Interested readers may note the Fire Board's policy on public comments - there are FOUR separate opportunities for public comment on every Fire Board public agenda:

example:
1 - After ROLL CALL
Public Comment #1

A fundamental element of democracy is the right of citizens to address their elected representatives. Therefore under Public Comment #1, the public may address the Board on any subject not listed on the Agenda. Each speaker may address the Board for a limit of three minutes. The filing of speaker cards is not mandatory, but is helpful in creating an accurate record. The Board cannot act on items not on the agenda and therefore the Board cannot respond to non-agenda issues brought up under Public Comment other than to provide general information. District policy assures members of the public the opportunity to speak to any regular or special meeting agenda item before final action. This opportunity to speak is during the public discussion of each agenda item and must be related to matters under consideration for that agenda item."

2 - After PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE and REPORTABLE ACTIONS FROM CLOSED SESSION REPORTED BY THE PRESIDENT:
PUBLIC COMMENT #2

A fundamental element of democracy is the right of citizens to address their elected representatives. Therefore under Public Comment #2, the public may address the Board on any subject not listed on the Agenda. Each speaker may address the Board for a limit of three minutes. The filing of speaker cards is not mandatory, but is helpful in creating an accurate record. The Board cannot act on items not on the agenda and therefore the Board cannot respond to non-agenda issues brought up under Public Comment other than to provide general information. District policy assures members of the public the opportunity to speak to any regular or special meeting agenda item before final action. This opportunity to speak is during the public discussion of each agenda item and must be related to matters under consideration for that agenda item."

3 - During the Regular Agenda:
"REGULAR AGENDA
The public may address the Board on any subject listed on the Regular Agenda. Each speaker may address the Board once for a limit of three minutes. The filing of speaker cards is not mandatory, but is helpful in creating an accurate record. Each speaker will be called upon to speak by the President when the item is heard."

4 - After Regular Agenda items and before INFORMATION ONLY ITEMS:

"PUBLIC COMMENT #3

A fundamental element of democracy is the right of citizens to address their elected representatives. Therefore if unable to address the Board under Public Comment #1 and 2#, the public may address the Board on any subject not listed on the Agenda. Each speaker may address the Board for a limit of three minutes. The filing of speaker cards is not mandatory, but is helpful in creating an accurate record. The Board cannot act on items not on the agenda and therefore the Board cannot respond to non-agenda issues brought up under Public Comment other than to provide general information. District policy assures members of the public the opportunity to speak to any regular or special meeting agenda item before final action. This opportunity to speak is during the public discussion of each agenda item and must be related to matters under consideration for that agenda item."