Council contretemps

The Claremont 400 had Kevin Arnold carrying their water for them at last night's city council meeting. Arnold came in and ripped into councilmembers Calaycay and McHenry, and slightly into Peter Yao in public comment for discussing City Manager Jeff Parker's contract and compensation publicly at the city council meeting two weeks earlier.

Odd, even though at that earlier council meeting ALL five of the councilmembers were speaking, Arnold focus his fire on McHenry and Calaycay. Arnold was mad because he claimed they were discussing closed session subjects in public. The city attorney didn't think there was any violation here, and at any rate, she didn't stop the council meeting when the subject came up--something she normally does if it appears there might be a procedural violation. Of course, the 400 only believes the city attorney's opinions when they want to, as they did with the Elderkin fib about the conflict of interest matter (check that one out at city hall--it's a public document).

Like Lynn Forester, Arnold singled out McHenry and Calaycay for doing exactly what the other councilmembers present were doing.

Why Kevin Arnold? Well, he was a schoolboard candidate, and he had considered running for council this time around (Paul Held and Valerie Martinez were stoking that fire). This may have been an opening salvo in an Arnold campaign for 2009. We'll try to post Arnold's attack on YouTube once the video is up on cable (it should air next Monday night on local cable).

Just another case of the 400 trying to stir the pot before the election. More on that subject later.