I had a problem deciding what to think about Morgan Hill mayoral
race. I don’t think that I was the only one. The signs posted all
over town don’t begin to give us any idea of what the candidates
will actually do when they are elected and the one mailer I have
gotten, from Art College, only reiterates the point that he is not
happy with the manner in which the city has protected our tax
dollars.
I had a problem deciding what to think about Morgan Hill mayoral race. I don’t think that I was the only one. The signs posted all over town don’t begin to give us any idea of what the candidates will actually do when they are elected and the one mailer I have gotten, from Art College, only reiterates the point that he is not happy with the manner in which the city has protected our tax dollars.
I did, however, have a means to resolve this for me. Since I write this column, I decided to ask each of the three to comment on an issue that is very important to me with the warning that I would use it for this column. I wrote: “I believe that our response to climate change, or lack of such a response, is the defining issue of our age.
I want to know: “No. 1, do you agree with that position? If not, then why not. No. 2, what do you believe our local community should be doing now in response? No. 3, are you willing to provide local public funding in support of any project you identify in the answer to No. 2?”
There are many important issues with innumerable advocates demanding our attention. I focused on climate change because it is the one issue, other than the use of nuclear weapons, that has the potential to end civilization as we are living it now. As Co-Chair of the EcoAction Committee, Green Party, I spent many hours on this issue, analyzing all of the reports including those who deny climate change. To summarize several years of study, one side of the argument has facts, the other has a well financed disinformation machine.
Art College’s response to the first question was “No, I do not agree with your position. The science and research done to arrive at you conclusion was faulty, manipulated and full of errors. I cannot support junk science and this is truly in that category.”
College has clearly not done his homework. The climate denial disinformation from Sen. Inhofe (R-OK) on the Senate’s website, published at government expense, are more filled with errors, distortions and lies than anything written by any climate scientist. It would seem that College has lost faith in science as an institution, much as he seems to have no faith in our local government as an institution. Such a view is not uncommon these days, but will be the subject of another column. It is, however, not the view that I want my Mayor to have.
College has been effective independent voice, calling attention to the failings of our city leaders at times. He should continue speaking out while he devotes more time to understanding what climate change is really about and how it will affect us all.
Marby Lee was a bit closer to what I think, but was also unwilling to deal with the problem. Her response to my first question was: “I believe that there are many issues affecting our community, and many questions about the validity of climate change. To call this one issue the defining issue of our age is to discount all the challenges our community, state, and country face at this time.” Like College, Lee has voiced doubts about climate change, or at least it’s importance. If she has other issue that she feels are more important, she has not made that clear to me.
Lee’s response to my second question tells me more about her “Morgan Hill has taken a very proactive environmental agenda, and while I agree there are some actions that should be taken to keep our environment clean and safe, I also get concerned when actions in support of this agenda are a detriment to our economy – I have mostly seen this in higher costs to implement such an agenda.” This is the pseudo argument of Proposition 23, that we can not afford to do anything about climate change now while the economy is so bad. This argument, often voiced by the anti-environment lobby, will never change. It will always be the reason for doing nothing other than continuing the policies that make the problem worse. Lee’s willingness to condemn us, and our children, to an unpleasant future for short term gain should not by rewarded by election to higher office.
Only Steve Tate seemed willing to take effective local action. In response to my third question, Tate wrote “I believe it is still a high council priority, it is definitely for me, but we have to deal with our financial situation. We do still have (Program Administrator) Tony (Eulo), he is still pursuing many of the programs/strategies on a priority basis, so we have not in any way abandoned our efforts.”
Wes Rolley is a Morgan Hill artist and concerned citizen. He is Co-Chairman of the EcoAction Committee, Green Party.
