Ford Greene: San Anselmo needs public debate

Ford Greene
Marin Independent Journal

WHEN APPOINTING Judy House to Ian Roth's vacant seat, San Anselmo Council members Peter Breen and Wayne Cooper described me as "vitriolic" and characterized my bringing to light record-based facts regarding House's past record as CEO of Ross Hospital as an inappropriate "personal attack."

Both miss the mark.

In her council-seat application, House made an oblique and out-of-context reference to having been a "CEO" from which she had obtained "broad exposure to the many requirements that businesses must meet." (www.fordgreene.com/app-house.pdf). She omitted naming any entity for which she held the claimed position.

By omission and half-truth, she opened the door and raised the issue of exactly what her acting in the past as a "CEO" meant. It was legitimate for me to fill in what she omitted. I used only matters that are either of public record or from documents that House signed herself, or both.

One would think that the council would have some concern appointing a person whose baggage included a record of dangerous incompetence, rather than attacking me, the messenger who challenged her application and exposed her past. That is, unless, as I have maintained from the outset, that the appointment was an in-House job, and the application and interview process were a phony going through the motions to make legitimate what had been illegitimately decided in private: between Breen and House at the Easy Street Cafe dinner meeting the day before House submitted her application.

Council members castigated me and members of the public. They didn't like being called "insiders." As of this date, however, four of the five members had his/her seat handed to him/her on the silver platter of an appointment without first being tested in the crucible of a public election. They are Breen, Cooper, Thorton and now, Judy House.

One who has been appointed to a council seat has a leg-up advantage as an "incumbent" when he first publicly must run for office. That advantage is obtained by the privilege of first being a chosen one, an insider who does not obtain her position by dint of fair competition. Such an incumbent avoids the test of public scrutiny and debate. San Anselmo has become a silver spoon council.

Mistaking public debate for vitriol is a dangerous projection. An inability to tolerate fair criticism does not a healthy democracy make.

Breen, in particular, criticized me and my constituents for publicly campaigning the issue of the appointment. Breen and Cooper singled out people honking at the Hub in my support and other people who sent the councilmen e-mails urging them to appoint me. They took aim with their resentment and fired, saying they didn't like such conduct.

Such thin-skinned reaction underscores the entitlement of holders of the seats first obtained by an insider's privilege. Resentment toward any public participation that is beyond their control or which may result in a demand for accountability is anathema to a healthy democracy. Elected representatives should act better than that. Free and vigorous public participation is democracy's friend, not it's enemy.

Ford Greene is a San Anselmo resident.