I am the current Chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board (PCPB). Last week’s guest commentary, “Born from the winds of change,” should have been titled “Let’s return to the past.”
Some PCPB history: seven years ago, a group of citizens, tired of a planning board controlled by development interests, who never saw a project they didn’t like, succeeded in taking over the PCPB in one election with the backing of the community.
These people have spent the last seven years ensuring that the community plan and the municipal code were respected, protecting the Peninsula from being ravaged by those who only saw it as a cash cow.
Their most visible struggle was with McMillin, over the Naval Training Center, earning them the everlasting enmity of McMillin and many in the real estate business.
Well, the development interests, tired of being watched, succeeded in ousting four of the original activists and replacing them with more sympathetic members. Mr. Khalil, a long-time McMillin employee, was one of the replacements.
Look closely at what Mr. Khalil wrote. The future he wants was clear in his second paragraph when he stated the “PCPB needs to do better to collaborate with all governing bodies.” Translation: the PCPB needs to stop challenging the developer-dominated Development Services Department and the Airport Authority. Mr. Khalil was the only Board member to vote against the Board’s request that the Airport Authority extend the Environmental Report review period from 60 to 120 days. That is the collaboration he means.
The absence of facts in the commentary speaks loudly. The only specific bit of information that could be reviewed was in the third bullet point. The writer stated “(many irregularities that violate the Brown Act governing open meetings).”
The bullet referred to March 2005. Community planning boards were not subject to the Brown Act until October 2006, when the City Attorney issued a Memorandum of Law that decided the planning boards were indeed legislative bodies.
The writer mentioned “his constituents” twice. The 2007 March election was a very simple affair. A slate of candidates was put together to oppose the incumbents. Voters did not vote for candidates, they voted for either the slate or the incumbents.
Very few of Mr. Khalil’s claimed constituents could probably identify him if they stood in front of him. A little old lady asked me for assistance at the election. She said her daughter was going to call her to tell her who to vote for but she needed to be sure she didn’t vote for an incumbent, so she asked me to identify them, which I did. This was one of Mr. Khalil’s so-called “constituents.”
Mr. Khalil accused the City Attorney of bias toward the “select few,” those he would like to see silenced. The original March 2007 election results were challenged and the City Attorney stepped in and called for a second election.
Three members of the City Attorney’s office supervised the second election. The result was a victory for Mr. Khalil and his group. That doesn’t square with the alleged bias of the City Attorney.
Mr. Khalil did not cite any specific decisions by the City Attorney’s office since the election that were biased, because he can’t.
In conclusion, reread Mr. Khalil’s piece and see that there is no substance to it. Mr. Khalil’s generalized, unspecific and critical attack was aimed at the remaining PCPB members who continue to hold the development interests accountable. This is the beginning of an organized effort to remove the remaining watchdogs on the Board.
Five Board members, myself included, are up for re-election in April 2008 and these powerful interests want us all out. Mr. Khalil’s tactic assumes our community is unintelligent and will embrace demagoguery. I don’t believe that; I could not believe that and continue to volunteer the time I do trying to give back to this community.
I believe the people in this peninsula are intelligent and discerning and have the ability to see Mr. Khalil and his message for what they are and will reject both.
Don’t listen to Mr. Khalil, or even to me; come to the meetings and see for yourself. Talk to us in person. And, please, vote at the election.