John Gaccione

Subject: Save Kensington’s Future Candidates
Date: 08/27/2022
From: The Election Desk

Land sakes alive! It turns out saving Kensington’s future is simple, according to the Save Kensington’s Future’s slate of candidates for the Kensington Police Protection & Community Service Board and the Kensington Fire Protection Board.

Recently, candidates were invited by the Kensington Democratic Club to participate in a Zoom meeting. 4 candidates responded, Daniel Levine, Gail Feldman, Cassandra Duggan and Sarah Gough. Alexandra Aquino-Fike did not attend.

Gail Feldman is well known in the community for her work with the Kensington Property Owners Association and as a past member of the KPPCSD board. It was clear she has a breadth of financial knowledge and public management experience. She is running for a seat on the KPPCSD board.

In contrast, the 3 folks running on the Save Kensington’s Future slate are very thin on experience, hazy on details and relied heavily on their guru Jim Watt’s parsimonious views for financial guidance. For example, they all repeated old shop-worn answers, most notably to Public Safety Building issue. Say Watt?

Consider Daniel Levine, a bright personable new resident and UC chemist. He is running for a seat on the KFPD board. While he doesn’t have much experience in community governance nor fire department issues, he stated housing the KPD and the KFD in the PSB has worked for 50 years. But how would he know that? I guess he read it on the internet.

Enthusiastic founder of the SKF group, Cassandra Duggan is running for a seat on the KPPCSD board. She is a semi-retired Licensed Clinical Social Worker and opines the KPD and the KFD should be in the PSB. If administration staff can’t fit, she suggests putting them in a commercial property which is only a 1-minute walk away. What commercial property is within a 1-minute walk was not identified.

Having successfully worked to create the small park at corner of Arlington Ave. and Coventry Rd., Sarah Gough is running for a seat on the KPPCSD board. Sarah is a lawyer and has worked with several non-profit groups. She thinks the KPD and KFD should be housed in the PSB if possible and the KPPCSD should revisit all the options, because there could be suitable commercial space in the area. This notion is old news and has been dismissed as inadequate.

The impression left by the SKF’s slate of candidates is they are merely echoing the SKF steering committee’s core political positions with keeping the KPD & KFD in the PSB, consolidation as the solution to all our problems, reinstatement of the finance committee, etc. The SKF steering committee’s campaign hopes to win control of the KPPCSD and KFPD in order to stall the PSB remodel project. The intent is to make the irresponsible fantasy of housing the KPD and KFD in the PSB a reality.

How does the SKF campaign espousing concern about wildfire and earthquake dangers square with keeping both first responders in a building sitting on an active earthquake fault?

Maybe saving Kensington’s future turns out to be not so simple after all. Can I get a hosanna?

“It is important to bear in mind that political campaigns are designed by the same people who sell toothpaste and cars.” (Noam Chomsky)