10/11/18

Lo and behold! Headquarters had learned the wily KPPCSD Board hastily called a special meeting for 10/04/18. On the agenda was a discussion of the CC DA’s letter addressing the wayward petitions and Matrix’s Phase 2 Report.

Luckily faithful members of Kensington’s old guard answered the call and were out in force for the meeting. Were those rascals on the Board trying to do an end run and vote in contracting? It is just such an outrage!

First on the new business agenda was the discussion of the CC DA’s letter addressing the investigation into Kensington’s handling of the 2009 Initiative petitions. One old guard member reported that in 2009 the petitions were not in some ordinary brown box, but in a blue box with red, white and blue ribbons.

No mention of the box being sealed securely, or if it was labeled appropriately or if it had been logged in with accompanying paper trail. And why bother to even bring up the old guard asset COP/GM Harman. He failed to seal, label and log in the box after he decided to keep it beyond the date it should have been destroyed. Old news.

Better to go blank on the past history and assign blame to the current GM. Because of him anyone could have come in off the street and seen the box on the KPD desk. Doesn’t someone need to be disciplined for this breach of procedure? Didn’t the “so-called council” learn a lesson from the incident? It’s a complete and utter outrage!

Next item was the Matrix presentation of the Phase 2 Report. A line up of old guard members proved they were worthy of their name by bringing up the same old tired questions. Will there be a police station in Kensington? Why are we changing our police department when it has worked for us for some 50 years? Why do we need a “big city” solution to improve our local police department?

A big “Gotcha” moment supposedly came when an old guard legal eagle had uncovered notations Matrix had written to their staff on another project report. The comment noted they had to lead the client to a solution the client was not considering.

Was Matrix ignoring the wishes of the old guard and leading Kensington to contracting? And since Matrix also has an interest in Kensington pursuing contracting, wouldn’t they stand to benefit from the additional fees to produce the RFP? What an excellent way to smear contracting by creating distrust and question the professional ethics of the consultant. A big score for the old guard legal eagles!

But what if contracting was to move forward, what city would Kensington partner with? Berkeley is not interested and Albany is pre-occupied with its new staff. That leaves the dreaded city of El Cerrito! [Gasp!]

With all this to consider the old guard’s fallback position was, is and apparently will always be; keeping our own local police department is somehow worth the inherent extra department inefficiencies, legal liabilities and financial burdens. [Humph.]

“Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.” (John Kenneth Galbraith)

Keeping K-ville Knee-deep in Pettifoggery since way back in 2008.