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https://n2v.almanacnews.com/square/print/2015/10/14/mayor-carltons-fantastic-story

Town Square

Mayor Carlton's Fantastic Story

Original post made by Silverman Fan, another community, on Oct 14, 2015

Over the weekend I received a phone call from a friend who lives in the north bay who relayed a story to me he found hard to believe. Last week he heard the Mayor of Menlo Park, Catherine Carlton on the radio telling one of my favorite comedians Sarah Silverman that the City Council has watched one of her skits in a Menlo Park City Council meeting that banned pay day loans.

I hadn't heard about that in local papers. It sounded pretty cool though - so I went to look up what he was talking about on the internet.

Sure enough, Mayor Carlton had talked to Silverman on KQED live radio last week. KQED had even published an article on the internet about it and also published a recording of Mayor Carlton making the claim. You can find it at this link.

Web Link

Mayor Carlton said,

“At the time [the City Council] happened to be talking about banning payday lenders in Menlo Park, so it was really timely when you did the bit,” Carlton said. “We watched and we listened very closely, and asked some questions in the City Council meeting — some based on the information you provided.”...

Carlton went on to thank Silverman for unwittingly playing a part in passing the legislation.

I thought that was really cool and then I watched the Silverman skit. The skit is funny but of course a little vulgar. The story was so amazing. So I looked up the City Council meeting in question.

You can watch it here:

Web Link

The discussion about banning pay day loans starts at around 3 hours and 20 minutes.

I was disappointed to find out that the Silverman skit wasn't played during the meeting. It wasn't even talked about. Mayor Carlton did reference a CNBC report at the beginning of her comments - but Sarah Silverman and John Oliver's show is on HBO. She didn't mention either of them at all in her comments that night.

Still it was a fantastic story.

Comments

Posted by Hmmm
a resident of another community
on Oct 14, 2015 at 10:13 am

It's too bad that the local NPOs who worked very hard against these pay day loan thugs were not acknowledged at all, but a comedian and mayor who don't need the publicity are touted. Nuestra Casa, for example, worked hard on this campaign, educating locals about the dark side of these businesses and encouraging civic leaders to not welcome these predators.

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Posted by Sam C.
a resident of Menlo Park: other
on Oct 14, 2015 at 10:37 am

I wouldn't call the story fantastic, I would call it sad.

"the Silverman skit wasn't played during the meeting. It wasn't even talked about. Mayor Carlton did reference a CNBC report at the beginning of her comments - but Sarah Silverman and John Oliver's show is on HBO. She didn't mention either of them at all in her comments that night.

Does anyone know what Cat Carlton was talking about when she called to talk to Silverman on KQED?

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Posted by Menlo Park Resident
a resident of Menlo Park: Sharon Heights
on Oct 14, 2015 at 9:35 pm

Cat Carlton doesn't need to toot her own horn- she just gets the job done. In my living in Menlo Park for over a quarter of a century this is by far the best City Council I have seen. They work well together, are smart, inquisitive, thoughtful, productive, and respectful of each other. They are a great team.

Thanks Cat, Ray, Peter, Kristin and Rich. You are wonderful!!!

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Posted by another view
a resident of Menlo Park: Allied Arts/Stanford Park
on Oct 17, 2015 at 11:34 am

This council is a good council? Members rarely ask hard questions of staff, several mayors gallivant around to other countries supposedly helping our little town, members rarely debate issues with one another, discusses big topics into the wee hours so public can't participate, and they hire consultants right and left to study subsets of issues rather than a more comprehensive view (think long-term transportation solutions and bicycle routes)? This is a do-nothing council that lets developers and staff run the town into the ground with impending gridlock and likely lawsuits for not providing fair share housing for all the new jobs (commuters) it's allowing.

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