Editor ( you have chosen to lock out anyone who is not registered to my original posting... Why???) anonymous posting should be permitted)
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Has the City of Menlo Park been conducting a coordinated campaign against Measure M?
Original post made by old timer, Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park, on Nov 1, 2014
Just appeared in the Menlo Park email log:
http://ccin.menlopark.org:81/8597.html
Has the City of Menlo Park been conducting a coordinated campaign against Measure M?
Please see the attached file. It contains details of a possible
publicly funded PR campaign against Measure M. Also attached is the
March 3, 2014 proposal from Malcolm Smith with details of the potential
campaign.
Please contact me if you have any questions.
Heyward Robinson
650-465-8633
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Attachments to this letter to the City Council are attached.
The City is prohibited by law from engaging in trying to defeat a measure such as the Initiative, now Measure M.
The attachments clearly show hiring a consultant, a Malcolm Smith, who would advise the City on just how to conduct such a campaign to defeat the Initiative
This, as shown in the attachments, was clearly known by top City Staff, including City Manager McIntyre, Jerome-Robinson, Brandell, Curtin, Cogan etc.
There appears to be no doubt this was an illegal activity. The Hiring of Malcolm Smith was previously unknown, and kept under wraps, as was was much of the material, which was only just released in response to a public records act request.
Also to be noted were private meetings with with the City Manager and No on Measure M camp -- Riggs, Boyle.
It is not clear apparently, just how much the City Council was aware of this activity -- it certainly was not discussed at Council meetings. Normal procedure is that the Mayor, Meuller, meets weekly with the City Manager. Surely this must have been discussed with him.
Everyone should go the City's email log and look at what thus far has been produced.
http://ccin.menlopark.org:81/8597.html
(to see original comments, please bring up original posting"
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Everyone should make sure they read the story in the front page of the Daily Post today (Monday 11/3/2014)
Titled:
City paid PR man for M messaging.
So here you can read, especially Mr. Peter Carpenter, the Atherton resident, who would not believe that Malcolm Smith was actually hired by the City, and if he was, he wouldn't be being paid by the City to do PR work against the Initiative.
Well it is all in the article, Carpenter.
It is not out in the open, the City Staff was hardly being unbiased and was willing to spend taxpayer funds to defeat the initiative. How much more than the website is involved, we don't know right now.
Are the sitting Council members, going to allow this kind of activity without their knowledge? At least Mayer Meuller didn't know about this.
Disgusting to say the least.
