Hardy L. Brown

In Ward 1 vying to take the lead away from Dom Betro who has played the lead role for the past four years is Mike Garner. Dom was able to command 44.7% of the voters' approval compared to 32.3% for Mike Garner out of a field of four that competed in June.

In Ward 3 we saw challenger William "Rusty" Bailey garner 49.1% of the votes as compared to 44.2% for incumbent Art Gage who has played the lead over the past four years. Apparently the voters don't like the performance of Gage because out of a field of three Gage came in a weak second. He knows the role of a city council member, yet he has not convinced the voters he can deliver the lines.

Out of a field of five in Ward 5, where the lead character did not seek re-election, Chris MacArthur leads the way with 41% voter approval with Donna "Doty" Michalka coming in second with 30.2 % of the votes. We know there will be a new person in this position but which one will it be?

In Ward 7 we see Steve Adams trying to keep his lead role with a poor showing of just 34% approval rating from the voters out of a field of five seeking his position. Former mayor Teresa "Terry" Frizzel came in second with 25.9% of the votes. With both of them being former city councilmembers the fact that they were only able to garner just over 50% of the votes means the voters are not that excited over their past performance as public officials.

Nevertheless, voters now have their work cut out for them by contacting each candidate to listen to them rehearse for the part before they vote in November. Also the Riverside citizens will get to vote on two measures that will appear on the ballot. One of the measures will amend the charter to impose monetary fines for trains and other vehicles blocking railroad crossings that delay fire engines, police cars and ambulances responding to emergency calls. The other measure would reduce the number of crowing roosters allowed on a lot to seven in residential agricultural zones.

Jim Penman's Muppet Show

The late Jim Henson was barley recognizable in public because he was always in the background creating muppets with his hand guiding their mouths and movements. I guess some of you are saying who is Jim Henson? However, if I mention Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear or a host of other puppet names you would say "oh, that Jim Henson." Jim was the creator of these famous puppets or muppets as we know them. For the sake of this editorial on the previous city council meeting in San Bernardino I witnessed this scenario: I saw City Attorney Jim Penman as Jim Henson, council members Neil Derry as Kermit the Frog, Wendy McCammack as Miss Piggy, Chas Kelly in the role of Fozzie Bear, and Joseph Arias, an attorney who contracts with the city for legal matters, played Uncle Deadly. Now Uncle Deadly only appears on the show intermittently which is why councilmember Esther Estrada wanted to know why Arias was there, when she asked, "Who sent for you?"

According to the Muppet Show website Kermit is the main character, Miss Piggy is a glamorous diva pig in dual pursuit of stardom. Fozzie Bear is a stand up comic and unofficial second in command behind Kermit. Down in a supporting role is Uncle Deadly better known as the "phantom of the Muppet Show" a sinister character who lurks around the theatre and appears occasionally. Penman wrote a script that had Kermit the Frog put forth a motion on the agenda which states, "That the Mayor and Common Council direct police, fire, code enforcement and other pertinent city departments to assist the City Attorney's Office by participating in team inspections of parolee housing facilities to gather evidence to be used by the City Attorney for prosecutions and other actions under his authority." Penman had also written Kermit the Frog a lengthy memo with all the justification and questions to pursuit with Uncle Deadly. The underlying thing about this request was to give authority and power over these departments which now report to the mayor and city manager over to the city attorney. His justification for the request is this is supposed to give the departments "prosecutorial immunity" from lawsuits if something was to go wrong with these inspection sweeps where parolees live. Now the mayor, who is a retired judge, was presiding over the meeting with four other council members quickly caught on to the script written by Penman. Mr. Kermit the Frog opened agenda item 33 with a written statement which included some legal words he could not pronounce and then he called up Uncle Deadly to help make his point. Now once Uncle Deadly had made well rehearsed statements to what seemed to be pre rehearsed questions, the mayor said "I have some questions of you Uncle Deadly," you are a smart intelligent lawyer was the implication put forth by the tone of the mayor's questions.

I cannot recall the questions but Uncle Deadly was very clear in his answers to the mayor. Each time the mayor would ask Uncle Deadly a question Uncle Deadly said "you are correct mayor." Then Mr. Penman seeing that his script was being torn apart before his very eyes, based on Uncle Deadly responses to the mayor, decided to jump into the script.  The mayor cited several recent court cases that spelled out the limitation of "prosecutorial immunity" to Mr. Penman which left Penman stumbling for words to express himself. By this time Kermit the Frog was silent and slumping in his chair. Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear even came over to console him before the defeat. Miss Piggy still weighed-in with comments and so did Fozzie Bear who had a prepared statement. This of course primed the other councilmember's to pipe up and say with their vote "we are against this City Attorney's take over at city hall" as they ripped the cover off of the muppets and saw Penman. The mayor said several times this is playing election politics with this request of which Penman denied.

Because Penman cannot place items on the agenda nor vote or veto any actions of the council, he resorts to the use of muppets in this case Kermit the Frog played by Neil Derry, Miss Piggy played by Wendy McCammack and Fozzie Bear played by Chas Kelly speaking in favor of the motion and Uncle Deadly also called "Phantom of the Muppet Show" played by attorney Joseph Arias, who has a contract with the city for legal matters. In his case the council needs to revisit his contract because he did not display himself as a competent lawyer to me. If you wish to watch a rerun of the play/meeting call Channel Three for show times in San Bernardino. The motion failed 4 to 3.