I retired from the city council after 16 years of service in 2018. As a fourth-generation Laguna Beach resident, I care deeply about the town where I grew up and have never left. I rarely comment on town issues anymore, but when I saw the recent horrible ad in the Indy about Bob Whalen, I decided that I had to make a statement.
Bob Whalen is one of the best council members in our town. He is very smart, patient and thoughtful. Sometimes, I think he is too patient with people in this town who are rude and disrespectful in council meetings. Bob is running again for city council, and we should all be thankful that he is willing to serve another term. He certainly has my vote!
I did some checking regarding the source of the horrible ad. It is from a PAC run by a guy named Alan Boinus. But, according to their 460 report, the money in this PAC comes from Village Laguna members Gene and Johanna Felder. I know this is election season when all the nonsense happens, but when you are thinking about who you will vote for in November, please don’t vote for the Village Laguna candidates. All you are going to get is more rude and incompetent candidates.
Kelly Boyd, Former Laguna Beach mayor and councilmember
I thought the ad to be incredibly humorous and creative and actually quite true..we all have different perceptions. Thank you Alan for a truly delightful ad and it doesn’t matter who pays for it Kelly..currently we do have limited speech but constitutionally our free speech is so definite and our right, so to get on the band wagon and try to discredit a creative ad is very old school and for a CC member that just can’t seem to go and is putting the city in tremendous debt is certainly welcome. The newest of the debt which as residents we are hearing for the first time is the desalination buy in that Bob has been involved with for 2 yrs and yet just hearing about it. Personally not interested in drinking water from the ocean when our sewage system has been broken for the last 30 yrs and should have been fixed. I won’t go on..but it does seem to sum up his answer when asked if residents should know about big expenditures and have a vote, his answer was a big ‘NO’!
That’s all I need to know.
Mr. Boyd –
Regardless of the individuals who funded the PAC – and I would assume there are many people who did – you seem to forget that they are all individuals NOT the entire Village Laguna organization. Hence, whoever Village Laguna endorses, that organization and the candidate it endorses cannot be construed as the ones responsible for the ad.
What you’re contending seems like saying if an individual donates to the NRA, that individual is responsible for all the mass murder killings involving automatic weapons.
Actually, to my ears, your condemnation of Village Laguna sounds much more like your own personal vendetta against the organization than anything else. And no, I’m not a member of Village Laguna.
PS. My personal opinion of Bob Whalen is that he’s not been a good councilmember. I’ve found him to be a really big spender with public funds ($151M for Laguna Canyon Road, $2.7M for Ti Amo, the ridiculously awful Presbyterian church parking structure “deal” that would have cost us tens of millions of dollars, and now, god knows how much more for more parking structures that’ll just bring in more day-trippers).
He opposes term limits and a return to the public’s use of Zoom for City Council meetings.
He voted to hire the inexperienced and uncredentialed Shohreh Dupuis as city manager, resulting in two years of tumultuous mismanagement – her mishandling of the Hotel Laguna and 14West armed takeovers alone were enough to subject the city to tens of millions of dollars in lawsuits. Then to help cover up for the bad hire, he handled her lucrative “retirement” package behind closed doors and made an effort to blame his future council candidate rival for her self-inflicted calamitous demise.
In regards to Whalen being patient with those you deem rude during City Council meetings, don’t forget that he was the mayor who allowed Peter Blake to bully, badger, insult and harangue residents at will when he could have taken steps to restrain him.
I’ve found him to be uniquely tone deaf and dismissive of residents needs – putting business interests and increased tourism before all else – and pursuing his pet projects without respect for residents’ support (he voted to buy Ti Amo without an appraisal for $2.7M, even after 60 residents spoke out to oppose it. Still vacant after four years.)
During the first candidates forum, he was asked if Council members should take an oath to put residents interests first. He was the only candidate who said, “NO.” So much for democracy and representative government.
BRAVO JEROME and BARBARA!
It is time for Bob Whalen to join Kelly Boyd in the past-mayors-pasture.
Someone really needs to look into what looks and smells like a secret coverup of the former city managerʻs potential exposure of the City to liability lead by the explainer-in-chief, Bob Whalen; it cost us close to $500,000!!!!
Time for Bob to go.