SQUIDFRY 02.11.16: Horse Play…

HORSE PLAY… As many readers may know, there is nothing Squid loves more than a secret. Even given the choice between a secret and Squid’s beloved shrimp popcorn, Squid takes a secret every time. Like that time Squid learned the King City Police Department was being investigated a year before a third of its officers got arrested? Squid couldn’t sleep for 12 months.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, nothing chides Squid more than public information that’s being withheld from public sight. Such has been the case in how Seaside has long handled the proposed Monterey Downs mega-development/horse track on the former Fort Ord: When someone would file a Downs-related Public Records Act request, the city would process it with an extra layer of review, often illegally delaying a response for months. On Jan. 29, attorney Molly Erickson – repping the activist group Keep Fort Ord Wild – sent a letter to Seaside underlining this fact, and that the city hadn’t yet responded to a PRA request from Nov. 24, 2015. (By California law, they have 10 days.)

So new Seaside City Manager Craig Malin, who promised transparency from the outset, rang up Downs developer Brian Boudreau and asked something to effect of, “Hey Brian, what’s the deal? Why the added scrutiny?”

The outcome? Malin has discontinued the practice of letting outside legal counsel inspect records requests, and has scheduled PRA and Brown Act trainings for city staff at the end of the month. Well-played Mr. Malin, well-played.

MAD ADS… Squid’s giant eyes kept rolling at Coldplay’s mediocre appearance during Super Bowl halftime. Why was that irritating Chris Martin harshing Squid’s mellow and interfering with Squid’s alone time with Beyonce? There was so much eye rolling, in fact, that Squid had a hard time working on a project Squid takes on every year during the Big Game: organizing all of Squid’s receipts for tax time. Receipt for new tentacle warmers? Check! Receipt for taking Squid’s bestie, Flapjack the Octopus, on a tour of Carmel Valley wineries? Check! Squid works for corporate masters great at reimbursing – unlike a poor Pacific Grove woman who’s taken her lack of reimbursement to court, class-action style.

According to documents at Monterey County Superior Court, former KSBW ad rep Jessica Dixon is a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the TV station’s parent company, Hearst Television, alleging the company failed to reimburse business expenses, as required by state law (and basic principles of fairness). Sure, proper reimbursement might cut into station president Joe Heston’s hair gel budget, but Squid figures the happier the ad reps are, the closer to God Heston’s hair might get.