We couldn't let last week's political catfight go by without a brief
witticism or two - we're of course taking about the Council allowing
Councilwoman Fergusson to remodel her house, a story which made Page 1
of the PA Daily Wednesday (while, we couldn't help but notice, a story
on a "massive drug-making operation" in East Palo Alto was relegated to
page 2).
 
It seems that while Ms. Fergusson got her neighbors to sign-off on her
remodel plan - no mean feat here in Menlo Park - one resident - Sue
Kayton - formally objected. Turns out, however, that good old Sue takes
a rather broad definition of "neighbor" in filing her objection, since
she lives FOUR MILES AWAY from Fergusson's house (talk about a "nosy
neighbor"!). Of course things became clear as to what this was all
really about when another speaker pointed out that - surprise, surprise,
surprise - Ms. Kayton is a strong supporter of the "usual suspects" -
Winkler, Duboc, and Jellins.
 
After nearly two long hours of back and forth - which included both
guest appearances by other unfortunate souls who evidently were badly
mangled by the Planning Commission/City Council when they tried to get
their own remodels approved in the past, along with liberal use of the
terms "ridiculous" and "waste of time" by speakers in characterizing the
effort to block Ms. Fergusson's remodel, the matter finally went to
Council for a vote. Given that it took the Council approximately 10
seconds to vote to approve the remodel with almost literally no
discussion, we'd have to say that "waste of time" was the clear winner
here.
 
(Now we do have to note that, because she actually lives near Ms.
Fergusson - imagine that - Ms. Winkler had to recuse herself. Something
just tells us there might have been at least a little Council discussion
if Wink-Wink had been eligible to do so.)
 
On the other hand, we do note that Mayor Jellins was able to walk away
with his head held up high, though - exhibiting his usual bold
leadership style, he abstained on the vote, thereby avoiding displeasing
the gods by actually voting to help Ms. Fergusson. We're so glad he took
the Cowardly Lion approach, because we fear that if he did actually vote
for Ms. Fergusson, he might have immediately spontaneously combusted,
and we would have had the equivalent of the Hindenburg disaster in
Council Chambers ("Oh, the humanity of it all!").
 

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Received on Sun May 14 22:59:48 2006