SMOKE SIGNALS… In between the eyedrops and the tears, and of course all that heavy smoke, Squid never lost sight of the community leaders in Big Sur who are tirelessly united as they battle the Pfeiffer Fire and endure losses. There were evacuees caroling at the Big Sur Roadhouse and Fernwood, and Riverside Campground and River Inn offering free rooms.
Among the heartwarming moments, former Big Sur Volunteer Fire Brigade chief Frank Pinney led a community meeting outside the Big Sur Ranger Station Dec. 18. He invited reps from the U.S. Forest Service, Red Cross, Big Sur Unified School District and others to deliver updates and news. Then this weird moment: An out-of-town attorney, K.C. Branch, based in Napa and San Luis Obispo, got up to offer his legal advice – first few minutes (he didn’t specify how many minutes) at no charge. “That was an unsolicited advertisement,” Pinney said.
Unsolicited, and likely to go unused. Before Big Sur even gets to the business of rebuilding? It feels slimy as cephalopod skin, looking to drum up business in the middle of a disaster. Branch smelled smoke, and appeared on the scene where he might be hoping all the affected property owners eventually hire him to sue whoever might’ve started the fire, but he’s in the wrong crowd; what residents were telling Squid’s colleagues last week is, they don’t care how the fire started, they just want to recover.
PETER PRINCIPAL… Squid was feeling a little morose that, now that the year is almost over, all was quiet on the Marina Coast Water District front. But while board member Howard Gustafson was probably out dropping lumps of coal, one of his fellow board members was having an interesting little correspondence war with the district’s own attorneys.
Squid’s email inbox started chiming merrily on Dec. 18, as some generous anonymous soul was busily hitting the forward button. The subject line: “Request for Complaint Details.” The subject? Apparently, some Marina Coast employees have complaints about how board member Peter Le interacts and communicates with district staff.
In a Dec. 18 email, the board’s outside counsel, Jeanine DeBacker, requests an ASAP meeting with Le. Le counters he doesn’t want to meet with her until she can spell out the details of the allegations and what rule would require him to meet with her. And that has Roger Masuda, the weary board general counsel, reminding Le that complaints against board members (unlike issues with employees) are subject to the Brown Act and will be aired publicly if, as Masuda suggest, Le’s issues can’t be resolved “informally.”
Squid is all for public airing. And Squid considers these emails – along with the Marina Coast board – the gift that keeps giving.