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| Officially Toast |
And what the MVN is telling us now is that Nancy Walsh has most definitely become persona non grata at Sierra Madre City Hall. In other words, this former mayor, not all that long ago the ultimate voice of local government agency power in the Foothill Village, is kaput. In case you don't get downtown much these days and haven't seen it yet, here is a steaming portion of the Mountain Views News article detailing what occurred Thursday evening. Along with current Mayor John Harabedian's somewhat delayed reaction to all of that excitement.
Titled "Council Stays Focused Despite Verbal Assault By Former Mayor,"John Harabedian should be regarded as the likely inspiration for much of this piece.
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| Happier days |
It is remarkable in that Nancy Walsh, who until recently many believed was the close friend and confidante of Mountain Views News editrix H. Susan Henderson, was so completely and utterly trashed. A reminder that once out of power in Sierra Madre you are likely to be of little further use to the publisher of this city's adjudicated newspaper of record, and should therefore expect no special favors. No matter how close you may believe your relationship might have been.
Poor Nancy's head must have been spinning once news of this article became known to her. I doubt she saw it coming, and probably assumed that she would receive far more positive reviews there for her performance than she did.
Mayor John Harabedian, the current recipient of the generous editorial largesse of Ms. Henderson, and in my opinion the driving force behind this article, is quoted thusly:
I am not completely certain what Susan Henderson meant when (or if) she wrote, "As Mayor John Harabedian stated when asked to respond to Walsh." Who asked? Nor have been I been able to figure why he needed to be asked before responding to this unfortunate situation. At the meeting itself the Mayor didn't really have all that much to say about Walsh's public comment.
Maybe what Susan means here is this is what happened when she asked Harabedian to respond? Or, more likely, it is how he wanted his response to appear in the newspapers, and wrote the response himself. The matter not being something he'd care to have to talk about in a more spontaneous way.
This pretty much confirms what we have been hearing through the grape (or should I say wistaria) vine. Behind the scenes Harabedian was apparently furious at Walsh for her statements at Thursday's Special City Council meeting, and this probably is his somewhat lawyerly way of responding to his immediate predecessor's bizarre rantings.
Some have questioned Mayor Harabedian's silence at Thursday evening's City Council get-together in the face of Walsh's unhinged verbal assault. As the bearer of the gavel (and the public comment cut-off button), he would be the one person there who could have put a stop to the stream of obscenities and libels erupting from poor Nancy's mouth. Instead he somehow chose to allow her to continue for the full five minutes needed to get through the entire statement. And then let it pass without comment.
It is good to see that, after having had some time to reflect about all of this, our current Mayor did eventually get around to saying the right things. Though it probably would have been more effective if he'd said this at the meeting itself. Rather than in a weekly newspaper that appeared two days after the fact, and only a relative few people are reading these days.
Susan's article ends with this rather odd claim:
According to the City Manager Report no such meeting is currently on the City Council's schedule. Here is how Elaine Aguilar describes next week's important City Hall events:
Which all goes to show, those in power here in Sierra Madre may change, and like Mary's Little Lamb where that gavel goes the Mountain Views News is sure to follow. But the steady stream of factual errors remains as constant as ever.
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