The misguided part was the city government giving credibility to the claim that the police department was somehow "associated" with the George Floyd incident - and then required an "outreach" effort to placate BLM and "defund the police" protesters.

The tri valley politicians failure start at the foundation when not fully backing our police and fire depts! Our country is a mess right now because of foolish and stupid ideologies that lack common sense. The tri valley is no different and our public safety is an issue because of the adoption of non support for our police and fire depts to include financially ! Want to help reduce crime being back Stop and Frisk.

The tri valley politicians failure start at the foundation when not fully backing our police and fire depts! Our country is a mess right now because of foolish and stupid ideologies that lack common sense. The tri valley is no different and our public safety is an issue because of the adoption of non support for our police and fire depts to include financially ! Want to help reduce crime being back Stop and Frisk.

Even so, we need to make City Managers stop bamboozling City Councils. There are ways.

THE SANDBOX:

I'd like the general plan to include a voluntary resident-only planning sandbox play area where participants would be allocated a presence on the official city website homepage to openly discuss any matter. But this sandbox would have zero legal authority.

However it would have the MORAL PURSUASIVE powers inherent in gathering real time information on all non-personnel, non-lawsuit related finance information. It could call for all income, all expenses broken down to a near graphite level. It would also be given lists of all city assets, physical or financial.

Sandbox topics could for example create alternative development solutions, reprice city assets, illustrate methods of generating balanced budgets. They might then mitigate discussions on complex issues by creating alternative revenue streams. Run poles on Sandbox ideas.

City managers would have a love-hate relationship with this volunteer sandbox idea no doubt. We need to change a lot of things over the next few years and the stifling of public input on a vast array of topics is at the core of why the country, states, counties and cities are in chaos.

The SANDBOX will plumb a new level of citizen community participation enhancing the human spirt. Residents would be asked to use their real names.

I have great concern there may be diminishing citizen protection from out police department. I am concerned Chief Swing may be kowtowing to the three council members.

The three council members, Testa, Arkin and Brown should butt out. The incident Testa referred to is no more her business then it is citizen business. It is a police matter. The Alameda County District Attorney is handling it.

The police removed a threating, dangerous bad man from our community. I am grateful for that. I feel that I may be safer in my home in Pleasanton with his removal.

Well said Tim! Thank you for writing this.

Tim Hunt is wrong about this. The City Council members are the representatives of the public in city government and are ultimately accountable for any actions taken by that government, including the police. Speaking from experience, there is much that goes on behind the scenes in the city that the Council never finds out about because the City Manager doesn't tell them. Kudos to Testa (who pioneered this years ago before she was on the Council), Arkin, and Brown for doing their job where past Councils haven't. A police department that operates without transparency or accountability is nothing more than a police state. It amazes me how Tim Hunt and the blog posters seem fine with that.

Each area of city government has its role and the City employees should be given the resources and support to do their jobs. Micro managing is not effective and everyone should report to one boss. In the case of the Police Chief, that should be the City Manager.

Definition of police state:

A totalitarian state controlled by a political police force that secretly supervises the citizens' activities.

If Testa, Arkin and Brown with the support of the likes of Matt Sullivan have their way, Pleasanton will be a police state.

The "likes of Matt Sullivan"?

Jeremy and Gina - if you are serious about this blog being a legitimate form of community dialog then you would delete these types of personal attacks and ban "the likes of Michael Austin" from this blog for his long-time behavior of attacks. It's a form of bullying and meant to intimidate people and prevent them from having a voice. But knowing how you feel about me you probably would encourage it.

And since Gina will likely bring this up, my past criticisms of City Councils are not personal attacks, but legitimate criticism of elected officials guaranteed in a democracy. No comparison to what Austin and others do to me all the time with the tacit approval of the PW.

Ultimately, the police are the most heavily armed people in a community. To think one person, or even two including the police chief, are enough to guard against wrongful citizen deaths�"especially with the worn out police phrase “I was in fear for my/partners' life/lives"�"is foolish. It is also foolish to believe an attorney general will find the police guilty of anything (see Deming or Bauer settlements).

Oversight by the the council (or a group/person with police experience similar to other communities) is a must. We have militarized many police departments. Let's be certain they are using those weapons to protect, not kill.

Bravo! Well said, Tim.

Unfortunately, it appears that Kathleen+Ruegsegger (KR) is rather ill equipped to speak out about legal terminology and militarization.

For instance, KR said that the worn out police phrase “I was in fear for my/partners' life/lives" is foolish. Really? Foolish in what way? This phrase is in the Penal Code and is used in court every day - by citizens, as well as law enforcement. Furthermore, what answer would YOU give if you had to testify against a suspect who attempted to assault you?

You also stated, for the record, that "we" have militarized many police departments. What do you mean, "militarized?" Police applicants do not enlist, nor sign contracts for a tour of duty. Police do not carry grenades. Automatic weapons are generally assigned to specialized units within the department- such as SWAT.

Web Link

Certainly there is no reason for oversight . . .

Yes, the Las Angeles Times, a very reliable left wing source. Defund and disarm the police.

(portion removed because it was false)

There are 80,0000 people in Pleasanton, majority of whom have better things to do than read the Pleasanton weekly posts. They make their voices heard by their votes and by the most recent election results, the Democratic politicians have support from a vast majority of our citizens in Pleasanton, Alameda, and California. If I recall correctly, Democratic politicians won elections by huge margins like over 70% for congress and 60% for governor. They are certainly in minority which is why they are so angry.