{"id":7392,"date":"2012-03-11T15:54:44","date_gmt":"2012-03-11T22:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/?p=7392"},"modified":"2012-03-11T15:54:44","modified_gmt":"2012-03-11T22:54:44","slug":"e-ditorial-sierramadrenews-nets-city-council-election-endorsements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/?p=7392","title":{"rendered":"E-ditorial – SierraMadreNews.Net’s City Council Election Endorsements"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted 3\/11\/12 – <\/em>By Bill Coburn<\/p>\n

SierraMadreNews.Net’s “Get to Know the Candidates” page<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This editorial is the opinion of Bill Coburn, publisher of Sierra Madre News Net and 17 year Sierra Madre resident.\u00a0 It is not intended to reflect the views of any other person or entity with whom I am associated.<\/em><\/p>\n

Special Election for the remaining two years of Joe Mosca\u2019s vacated seat<\/strong><\/p>\n

SierraMadreNews.Net is endorsing Colin Braudrick.\u00a0 I believe Colin will make a good City Councilman.\u00a0 He has proven with his work on the General Plan Update Steering Committee that he is hard working, bright, capable, and open to the ideas of others, even though he may not initially agree with them.\u00a0 These are, obviously, all traits one wants to see in their elected officials.\u00a0 I also liked that Colin looked at the UUT measure one step further than some of the other candidates,voicing his concern about the effect on bond ratings should the ratings institutions be anxious about uncertainty in City revenues. It\u2019s easy for a candidate trying to woo you into voting for him to tell you that he\u2019s doing what\u2019s in YOUR best interests: \u201cI\u2019m against adding to your tax burden by extending or increasing the UUT.\u201d\u00a0 But I want my City Council members to be doing what\u2019s in the best interest of the CITY<\/em>, even if it means implementing policies that they don\u2019t really want to (like extending taxes).\u00a0 I don\u2019t want their decisions to be based on ideology that they are so firmly committed to that they won\u2019t consider any alternative.\u00a0 I like Chris Koerber, he\u2019s a nice guy.\u00a0 But I\u2019m voting for Colin .<\/p>\n

Regular Election for two 4-year seats<\/strong><\/p>\n

SMNN is endorsing John Harabedian.\u00a0 John was born and raised here, so he knows how things have been done and has the history of the town as a background, woven into his life and a part of who he is. He attended Yale, Oxford and Stanford (seems like a decent education), getting a Masters Degree in Public Policy and his JD.\u00a0 He intends to settle down and raise a family here, so he is fully invested in our future.\u00a0 In our discussions, he has presented himself as well spoken, practical, and energetic; and he seems to have a lot of good ideas, such as a public safety oversight committee.\u00a0 We agree on most of the issues that we\u2019ve discussed.\u00a0 And I think it\u2019s a good idea to have someone on the Council that is an attorney, so that matters of the law are considered in the decision making process.\u00a0 I know we have a City Attorney at each meeting, but their job is to advise on legal issues when asked<\/em>, or if something being considered violates existing law, and if nobody asks, it\u2019s not their place to bring things up.<\/p>\n

SMNN is also endorsing Gene Goss.\u00a0 Gene has studied politics for much of his adult life, he has a Masters Degree in Political Science.\u00a0 Heck he teaches it at Long Beach City College.\u00a0 I think that knowledge might be helpful to the City.\u00a0 His experience as Technology Committee Chair at LBCC might also come in handy in assessing the City\u2019s methods and policies regarding technology.\u00a0 As an academic, he will bring analytical skills to the table as well.\u00a0 He has a young son that he wants to continue to raise here in Sierra Madre, so he is fully invested in the future of our town, as well.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know Gene before this campaign, but we\u2019ve sat down a few times and talked, and I have been comfortable with him right from the start, and we are on the same page with the issues we\u2019ve discussed.\u00a0 That\u2019s not a prerequisite for my endorsement, by the way.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have to agree on everything with a candidate in order to endorse them.\u00a0 But in this case, we seem to be pretty much of like mind, and for me, that\u2019s a definite plus.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be perfectly comfortable with it if John Cappocia gets voted in.\u00a0 John has shown me that he is good at analyzing issues, he cares about the town, and I think he would be a good councilman.\u00a0 But John C. and I disagree about more issues than John H. or Gene and I do, so I\u2019ve chosen to endorse John Harabedian and Gene Goss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted 3\/11\/12 – By Bill Coburn SierraMadreNews.Net’s “Get to Know the Candidates” page This editorial is the opinion of Bill Coburn, publisher of Sierra Madre News Net and 17 year Sierra Madre resident.\u00a0 It is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[136,30,139],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7392"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}