Squid wonders how to help Monterey County Board of Supervisors chair John Phillips in his time of need.

Man Card…Squid spent most of the weekend curled up in the lair behind a see-through wall of couch cushions, trying to wash off all the lies, lies, lies coming out of the White House.

But one thing Squid was not outraged about was that a freshman congresswoman used a profanity, in private, to describe our pussy-grabbing President Donald Trump, who has done more to debase the political discourse in this country than any politician in Squid’s lifetime.

Squid still struggles to understand why so many Americans love him, and why there was so much vitriol directed toward Hillary Clinton, who, while perhaps not a person that many Americans would “want to have a beer with”—as the saying goes (but for the record, Squid would love to have a beer with her)—is actually smart, capable and perhaps even a “stable genius.”

It just seems that for some reason, in America, many people have a problem with women in power, and that’s evident in many of the local public meetings Squid watches, and most certainly, on the 13-member board of the Fort Ord Reuse Authority, the agency formed by the state in the ’90s to oversee the redevelopment of Fort Ord.

Squid has watched countless FORA meetings over the last several years, and a few things are clear: the board, having so many members, is inherently dysfunctional, and also, the issues are so complex and layered that few board members take the time to do the work of understanding them.

But by Squid’s measure, nearly of the all of the board members who do take the time are women, and in particular, Marina City Councilwoman Gail Morton and county supervisors Jane Parker  and Mary Adams.

Not coincidentally, they often find themselves on the losing side of votes, and face pushback from other board members when they push for further discussion, or if they want to make even the slightest adjustment to whatever the FORA staff recommends.

Most FORA board members would rather just rubber-stamp whatever staff wants and get on with their day.

So it was not altogether surprising when Squid read the agenda for the Jan. 7 County Board of Supervisors meeting, where soon-to-be board chair John Phillips, the county’s District 2 supervisor, in his proposed supervisor appointments to various boards, proposed that Adams be replaced on the FORA board by incoming District 3 Supervisor Chris Lopez, whose district—east Salinas and South County—encompasses exactly zero percent of the former Fort Ord.

Adams’ District 5, meanwhile, which encompasses Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel, Carmel Valley and Big Sur, does have land on Fort Ord—in Monterey. What’s more, ever since the FORA board first convened in 1998, it has always had a District 5 supervisor, and has never had one from District 3. Because why would it?

Squid’s colleague reached out to Phillips (who also serves on the FORA board) about the proposed appointment, and he says that he would have preferred to take Parker off the board, but that because her district—District 4—encompasses most of Fort Ord lands, and because she’s now the FORA board chair, he says, “I didn’t think it was right.”

But why the change? Why Adams?

“I thought that a change in membership would be beneficial to the county’s interest and FORA’s interest,” Phillips says, adding that Parker’s and Adams’ votes often side with the two FORA board members from Marina.

Adams says she wants to stay on the board, and says, “Clearly I’m disappointed, we were starting to make some really good headway at FORA,” adding that FORA-related issues like traffic on Highway 68 and Highway 1 are critical to her constituents.

She suspects the proposed change may because of her stated support for FORA to sunset in June 2020, as it’s currently required to do by state law.

Lopez, for his part, says he didn’t ask to be on the FORA board, and just that he be appointed to all the same boards as his predecessor Simon Salinas, as well as the Cannabis Standing Committee.

Another big change: Phillips proposes appointing District 1 Supervisor Luis Alejo to the board of the Local Agency Formation Commission of Monterey County (LAFCO) alongside Lopez, who will be taking Salinas’ spot. Alejo, however, would be replacing Parker.

Here’s why that may matter: In December, FORA finally submitted its draft transition plan to LAFCO, which will oversee the agency’s assets, liabilities and ill-defined “obligations” when FORA sunsets, and will finalize and approve that transition plan later this year.

Squid’s not exactly sure what the endgame is here for Phillips: Is this all about keeping FORA around?

In any case, the proposed appointments call for two smart women to be removed from two powerful boards. And in the case of Adams, whose district’s constituents might place their votes based on issues related to FORA, it seems downright anti-democratic.

Squid expects the pitchforks to be out at the supes meeting tomorrow (which is unfortunate for Lopez, who didn’t ask for this), and Squid won’t be surprised if a compromise is made: Rumor has it that Alejo, who’s attended a few FORA meetings over the past year, and who has stated publicly he thinks FORA should continue, might end up appointed to the FORA board.  

Because the good ol’ boys always seem to get their way.