Frago, round two

On August 12, the Atwater City Council held its second meeting on how to avoid dealing with the rampant racism within its city hall and within the town. The two agenda items that were supposed to smooth this over were:
 

3.1 Consideration of a Letter Expressing the City Council’s Disapproval of Former Mayor Pro Tempore Frago’s Actions in Forwarding Inappropriate Emails to City Staff
 
4.1 Selection of a City Council Member to serve as Mayor Pro Tempore (i.e. instead of Frago, the present mayor pro tempore)

 
The council and particularly Special Council Adam Lingren were terribly serious. Lindgren is not even listed on the city’s website. The City Attorney is Dennis Myers, who went to Atwater from his position as Merced County Counsel about the time former Merced County CEO Greg Wellman because Atwater City Manager. The attorney was there to reassure about a hundred people at the community hall that absolutely everything legally possible was being done about this city’s sickness. He announced the Letter of Disapproval (called in the first meeting a Letter of Reprimant) had been drafted and then he read the Letter. After reading the letter, he informed the citizens that every darned one of the council members could vote on it but Frago.
 
The Letter said that Atwater City Council had a commitment to ethical conduct of its members, and disapproves of Frago channeling racist emails on city equipment. The council said they thought it was “ inappropriate to send racially derogatory, sexist and sexually explicit e-mails and jokes to City employees.” The council said they didn’t “condone it.”
 
Real tough stuff. The Letter informed us that Frago resigned as major pro tempore two on August 10 and “appreciates your willingness to participate in training.” Then the council commits itself to also participate in “training” and the local chapter of the NAACP will be invited to help select the trainer and design the training and “will be highly transparent” about the training and even the training materials. The council finishes by affirming “our singular will to embrace and respect difference.”
 
Because, in our society, therapy can solve everything, right? All you gotta do is get your clichés down.
 
Gary Frago, who sent out at least 200 racist and pornographic emails, some even alluding to the assassination of the president, as reported in the Merced Sun-Star on Aug. 12,  using the city computer server over the last year, most of them received by Wellman and other city staff along with a larger group of the city’s depraved citizens including county Supervisor Mike Nelson, again said he was sorry, announcing that he had begun “sensitivity training,” his apparently voluntary “therapy,” in Oakland. “I can’t expect people to forgive my behavior, but I hope they’ll forgive me. I’ll never do it again…”
 
Mayor Joan Faul then laid down the rules for public comment on the Letter, concluding, “We’re going to do this in a democratic way – everyone will be permitted to speak, but in a respectful manner.” The rules were: all speakers were required to get numbered “speakers’ cards,” there would be not threats or profanity tolerated; speakers must be respectful; speakers could only speak for a maximum of three minutes and only speak once. I counted four armed policemen in the room.
 
OK, children, line up and speak respectfully about a man who spoke with extreme disrespect of an entire race and about a city hall that let him get away with it using public computers for months.
 
No. 56, John Mims, asked whatever happened to the letter of reprimand. Mims found the Letter “very weak.” He told Frago he needed to do his “training” in Atwater, not in Oakland. Frago needed to be with the people who voted for him to learn how much he had hurt them and find out why those emails hurt so much.
 
No. 57, Alvin Mayfield told Frago to resign. If Frago hadn’t already learned in 60 years, no training would help. “You say you aren’t a racist,” Mayfield went on, “and you mention you’d been to New Orleans.” Mayfield, born in New Orleans, suggested that if Frago couldn’t see the racism in New Orleans, no training would help. He said he forgave Frago as a Christian but that Frago, like Frago’s good friend, Supervisor Nelson, had “tuned out the people and that Frago was still in an “I want” mode of religion. “You can’t go forward. You need to resign. This letter is nothing but eyewash.”
 
No. 58, a youngster arrived at the microphone wearing a hat. Mayor Faul made him take it off. The young fellow lectured the council on something he’d read or heard about “democratic deficit.”
 
No. 59, Erma Smith, a member of the NAACP, began by blasting a memo that Supervisor Mike Nelson had written apparently accusing Smith of “hate speech.” Her theory of the Oakland “training” was that it was a great way to avoid the media and, by the way, who was paying for it? She asked what consequences there would be if this kind of behavior happened again. Frago has to resign, she concluded.
 
No. 60, Dr. Napoleon Washington, president of the Merced County Chapter 1047 of the NAACP said that Atwater members of the NAACP “are discontented” with this letter. “There have been other letters, other ordinances, but the behavior continues. It is a continued pattern among city employees and citizens.” Public officials have been silent on this issue until Nelson sent a letter in defense of Frago, saying there was “a hate-filled vendetta out to get Mr. Frago.” Washington said, “This is far from the truth.” The NAACP is deeply concerned by this pattern of behavior. “We have grandparents and family who were lynched, beaten and burned out of their places in the South because of racism.” If Frago were truly changed by his one training session, he’d show it by resigning.
 
Although in possession of Nelson’s memo, a typical example of his rightwing views, Badlands decided not to publish it lest it fall into a political hissy fit currently benefitting Nelson among his more paranoid constituents. His “opponents” can’t help themselves or anyone else.
 
No. 61, Antoine, was an organizer for a group called Soul. He said Frago should send an email to the Obamas apologizing for the emails he’d sent through city computers. “UC Merced students are very hurt behind this,” Antoine asserted. “You don’t represent all the Portuguese,” he told him (and here we thought Frago was an Italian name), then Antoine claimed to have registered 20,000 voters for Dennis Cardoza (presumably a “good Portuguese”). Antoine promised “to continue this nightmare” until Frago resigned.
 
No. 62, a woman who lives in Atwater, thought the issues were extremely serious but that “the majority of people in Atwater would not have been involved in these emails…The criticism should be about what a person says and does, not what he is.
“There are consequences for mistakes,” she continued. “He can change as a private citizen. He has offended us. We don’t trust him to make decisions for the community. He should step down so the community can be spared.”
She ended by noting that there was inadequate notice of the meeting and where it was being held and this was the reason there were so few people attending it (about 70 rather than more than 200 at the first meeting on this case).
 
No. 64, Maureen McCorry, said that many at the last meeting had expressed their outrage with great eloquence. She called the Frago case “a real American history lesson, not just an Atwater issue, and a tragedy that it’s focused just on one person. The consequences are appalling if you’re trying to educate the next generation about what’s right and what’s wrong. You are falling very short.”
 
McCorry argued that the focus shouldn’t be just on Frago because we all get emails. Referring to the universal dodge of public officials who received these emails for months, that they get lots of emails every day and just delete them, she said, “I can’t believe deletion was honorable.”
 
No. 65 said her child had recently been called the ‘N-word” in school and had asked her what it meant. “Racism is taught,” she said, “and it affects children. You ought to resign.”
 
No. 66, an Hispanic woman born in South Merced and claimed credentials in this argument because she had received hate mail for marrying a white man, said Frago ws not a racist and that no one was thinking about what his family was enduring through this. Frago “is a good, god-fearing man being taken in by people with agendas. “What would Jesus do?” she cried. “For the love of God, accept his apology!”
 
No. 67,  said she was ashamed of what Frago did but “terrified of Change Merced.” One Rocky Balboa hat and a little chat about “systemic democracy deficit” has apparently gotten the local FoxNews addicts upset to they point they are shivering about “What’s happening in national government is coming down to us…Don’t let political activists negate the ballot box.” They speak in tongues.
 
No. 68 is a fellow from Los Banos who has a beef with Tommy Jones, the black mayor of Los Banos and claims Jones said he was a member of the KKK but that NAACP had refused to “publicly declare me a racist or not.” He said his sin had been to expose loans Jones had allegedly received from Greg Hostetler and an alleged arrest for cocaine. Nullball No. 3
 
No. 68, a citizen of Atwater demanded to know who was paying for Frago’s “sensitivity training and alluded to the expense of a recall campaign and another election if it was successful.
 
No. 69, another Atwater citizen, arose to support Frago and asked him not to resign, saying that “they” were violating Frago’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech. Nutball No.. 4.
 
No. 70, Sandy Cane, a long-time educator, said she was concerned with the impact of Frago’s :message” on students. She said she knows she’s a role model for children, and so are politicians like Frago.
 
I reject this appalling idea in general, granting that Obama is a role model for some. In general, like any other profession in the culture, few American young people aspire to be politicians and right now the number dwindles as the field grows more unpopular. Youth is reaching for something – every generation reaches for something and defines its goals even if they never get beyond rejection of the values of the last generation.
 
Cane went on to say that, ”All I could think about was all those UC Merced students who got Michelle here. I was proud of that. We were tearful.”
 
It is interesting to note that Atwater has been a counterpoise to the rabid UC Merced boosterism in Merced. No direct relationship between Michelle Obama’s visit to the campus and Frago’s emails has been established, although the president’s wife figures in several racist and pornographic emails,  but one of the rallying cries for the Riverside Motorsports Park on the outskirts of Atwater was that Merced got the campus so we should get the “NASCAR” track. Supervisor Nelson led that fight and prevailed in the board on the approval process. We don’t recall many minority-group faces in the little black-hatted mobs RMP organized for various hearings.
 
Cane said she knew Frago was not the only one involved in this scandal. “We have Zero Tolerance in schools and it means that it just can’t happen; it is totally unacceptable. We cannot do what we won’t let our children do.” Speaking to Frago, she said, “It might just be time to do something else. The media is involving young people in this.
 
No. 71, Judy Bowling of Atwater said she was now ashamed to say that she comes from Atwater because of Frago’s actions and that a couple of weeks of sensitivity training would not do the trick. She urged him to resign if he cared “about Atwater and about our children;” otherwise “we will recall you … You are pathetic!”
 
No. 74, from Atwater, said she’d brought her family to “experience this.” She said she heard a lot of racist language in a Danny Glover movie and asked how this could be done in Hollywood and not here.
 
“I know Frago isn’t white – he’s Portuguese,” she said. “Don’t resign.”
 
She said that the meeting was showing a double standard and setting a dangerous precedent. Where might it stop? She said she knew people here (presumably right in the community hall) who had heard racist remarks and received racist emails.
 
No. 75, Louis Braxton’s blend of theology and politics was kind of hard to follow. His political point seemed to be that if the people didn’t accept Frago, he could not represent them. The theology was beyond us.
 
No. 76 said Frago had apologized and said it was wrong and that the city needs to move on. He seemed to suggest that if Frago wanted to help, he should volunteer at the Police Athletic League. He ended asking “Who is to cast the first stone?” This ended the public comment.
 
The council began to deliberate.
 
Frago said he’d chosen the racial sensitivity therapist in Oakland because, after research, “they’d” decided this therapist was one of the best. He said he was paying for it.
 
Regarding the Letter, Mayor Faul said, “We felt the Letter expressed our feelings and it was a way to start.”
 
Councilman Nelson Crabb asked who would be paying for the training for the entire council and why was the entire council being punished for the actions of one members. He added that he’d heard the training for the entire council would cost $100,000.
 
Special Attorney Lindgren ducked the question, saying the money would come from the city’s general fund. Crabb asked him how many names were on the Letter?
 
Lindgren replied that it was “a very time-consuming process” for City Attorney Myers (Myers the Absent), City Manager Greg Wellman (present) and the Police Department (present in force). But, he wouldn’t answer Crabb’s questions.
 
The mayor said that council members were not required to go to the sensitivity therapy trainings. Crabb replied, “We’re shotgunning when we should be specific.”
 
Lindgren then launched into a passage of pure, very high-priced, meaningless obfuscation. When he had run out of hot air, Crabb asked if Frago would be required to take the training in Atwater. Lindgren replied that it was Frago’s choice. Crabb asked if then Frago’s Oakland training would be “sufficient.” Lindgren said that was up to the council, adding that the language in the Draft Letter “does not imply that the council shares the blame.”
 
Crabb said that he still wanted an accounting “on the expenditures on this email situation.”
 
Councilman Joe Rivero said that Frago was not excluded from the Atwater race sensitivity therapy training sessions. Lindgren supported that statement, saying it “is the will of the council. It was not my intention to bar him from it.”
 
Joe Rivero said he thought everybody should participate in the racial sensitivity therapy sessions.
 
We wondered if these sessions would be open to the public.
 
The mayor moved the motion to accept the Letter. Joe Rivero seconded it.
 
Crabb said he agreed with some of the strong statements made in the letter but did not believe that the council as a whole should attend the sensitivity sessions. “I am being asked to take responsibility for someone else’s mistakes.” Crabb said he was distributing his own press release and handing over his amended version of the Letter to the special attorney. “I have my own letter. I don’t approve of yours,” he told Lingren.
 
From the audience, Mims asked that, since the city manager was on most of the email address lists, why isn’t he included in the sensitivity training. City Manager Wellman said he would be “more than pleased to attend any meeting that would help. Yes, absolutely.”
 
The motion passed 3-1 (Crabb).
 
Joe Rivero moves to include Wellman in the sessions. It passes 3-1 (Crabb). Frago abstains.
 
Then followed the biggest surprise of the evening – Faul nominated Joe Rivero to be mayor pro tem. Frago seconds the motion after the special attorney explains that Frago is eligible to vote on this issue. It passes, 4-1 (Crabb).
 
The Merced NAACP chapter has participated in three demonstrations so far on this incident: two prior to the two council meetings and one at Supervisor Nelson’s fundraising barbecue last week.
 
Dr. Washington informed Badlands that the NAACP continues “to negotiate with rational minds at the Atwater City Hall” and is getting strong support across the board from members of the community of all races. He said the state NAACP has been looking into the issue and that it is already a national story and the City of Atwater is being embarrassed nationally. However, at this point, the Merced NAACP has not filed any formal complaints with either local or state agencies, Washington said, adding, “this is not over.”