SQUIDFRY 02.02.21: Peanut Gallery

PEANUT GALLERY… Squid’s recent performance review was good, but Squid was told that under no circumstances may Squid microwave fish in the Weekly kitchen again. Squid recently learned Pacific Grove City Manager Ben Harvey received a review from residents who view his performance as the stinky fish. Around 300 people responded to a city survey in November, and nearly 100 said his performance needs a lot of improvement. Just under 50 said he needs some improvement. (Just under 50 each also called it “adequate” and “good,” while around 30 chose “excellent.”)

The written responses were especially rough, with 28 people saying the city needs a new manager. Six specifically called for him to be fired. Only three said nice things, with one giving him props for new ideas.

It’s those new ideas that have grumpy residents throwing tomatoes. Harvey was roundly criticized for the ill-fated P.G. Al Fresco, closing sections of Lighthouse Avenue for outdoor dining. That was followed by an attempt to bring in retail cannabis, only to be overturned.

When the staff report for an agenda item to discuss survey results was released in January, some residents wrote to complain that Harvey didn’t mention the negative reviews in his written report to council. Squid looked and couldn’t find them either—turns out they were there, in an attachment. But for haters who are looking to put their objections up front, the placement of a graph charting Harvey’s public report card was just yet another thing to gripe about. 

Something stinks, and it’s not the fish.

BACK TO THE START… Seal loves me, seal loves me not. Seal loves me, seal loves me not. Squid was tearing off rose petals to determine what that beady gaze really meant, and then Squid thought hiring would also be easier this way – as easy as choosing a new superintendent for Pajaro Valley Unified School District, or so the board thought.

The PVUSD fired Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez on Jan. 27, painfully just one day after her dad’s death, on a split 4-3 vote. But instead of a fast and painless rose petal exercise to determine if they’d chosen well, the board then sat through two seven-and-a-half hour meetings and endured a lot of public outrage on Rodriguez’s behalf. With so many petals on one side, the board held another meeting on Sunday, Jan. 31 – and decided to reinstate Rodriguez.

(Some board members, specifically Georgia Acosta and Oscar Soto, said it had less to do with the abundance of public comment and more to do with the ferocity of those comments; they said they reversed their decisions after receiving death threats, though no complaints have been filed with the Sheriff’s Office nor Watsonville police.)

Instead of a new superintendent, the board appointed a new president (good call), naturally one of Rodrigeuz’s supporters, Jennifer Holm.