Political Gumbo: Gabo’s Got A Point

Monday night’s City Council was what those meetings should be — the elected officials doing the city’s business.

Then came the phone calls on matters not on the agenda.

Gabo Lizardo came on to talk election issues, but first he took the council to task for limiting his call time to two minutes.

Yes, a lot of people have attempted this move, but this one came with some heat.

Gabo referred back to the agenda.

The agenda still says callers will have three minutes to speak.

Yes, the law allows the City Council to set limits on speaker time, and that needs to be reflected in the agenda.

And guess what it is.

“The Mayor and City Council may limit this time if reasonable under the circumstances.”

But was the limit reasonable?

There were only five callers and the city had done its business.

I’ve given grief to the madness that comes out of calls on matters not on the agenda.

However, in this case the five callers at the end of the meeting could have received three minutes each and not stopped the city from doing its business.

Kudos to Gabo for making a point with respect. In return, he got kudos from several councilmembers.

And then it got ruined.

A woman called in and claimed she waited months to call in to speak out against the reproductive rights resolution because she could not believe the city had passed it.

Way back in February, the City Council passed the resolution, 7-1.

Wow three and a half months of … I can’t believe they did this.

Yeah, right.

Not sure I could have taken three minutes of that. Hell 15 seconds had me looking for another beer.

On to the election, the city moved its elections to coincide with state elections to increase voter turnout after state Attorney General Javier Becerra said the city had no choice.

Of course that turned out to be false after a judge ruled Charter Cities can run their own elections.

Makes you wonder what’s up with state’s attorney generals, first this guy and then Bonta.

Of course during the 2020 presidential election, voter turnout was up. It was a critical election in the nation’s history.

But this time around, voter turnout is hardly on the rise as Lizardo pointed out.

I’m still not a fan of the county handling local elections.

There was something special about working election night at the Convention Center or City Hall as the results came in.

Of course, most of the time the candidates watched at home and made an appearance for a victory lap only after victory or a runoff election was within their grasp.

Now you click the mouse and wait for the results to trickle in.

Nobody to blame, but it’s just not the same.

Also, a couple of people congratulated John J. Kennedy, Jess Rivas and Jason Lyon on their election victories.

Yes, John J. is far ahead and Lyon is above 50%, but there are votes left to count.

Rivas is a lock. Well, unless that write-in candidate that garnered 61 votes captures every remaining vote.

Got to tell ya, I don’t see it happening.