I just finished a four month campaign for Ojai city council. I have been released as the Poet sang. I am being mightily taught about the similarity and difference between the flesh and virtual worlds. Both have their own passions and i've got to walk the fine line between them. I love them both but as the Poet also says: it's people's games you have to dodge after the rules of the road have been lodged. I love Ojai but that begs the qu3stion of who Ojai is. I will soon be linking this site to my new central one in a move to prioritize, systemize and coordinate the thoughts and energies that are at present flying all over the place. Ojai grounds these ephemeral leaning and learnings as only a womam can and for that I am grateful as I walk and bicycle her fleshy streets. More later since time is short at this young age of 70. Love.Dennis

On 8/2/10 I sent the following to the main media organ here in Ojai, the OVN or Ojai Valley News. It's about the biggest scandal in years, perhaps ever, but guess what? Except for the VIEW there's a total blackout and cover up. The OVN has published my pieces on Mallory Way, another scandal in the making, but so far has not published my open letter to the city council on Libbey Bowl. I'm very interested in whether the OVN will publish my whistleblowing. If not I'm even more interested in why not. The OVN leans right and the Ojai Post leans left. I've already been banned from the Ojai Post because I don't have the right "tone". If the OVN bans me I only have the VIEW. I'll have to take to the streets and take it directly to the people. It looks like I'll be on the ballot this fall for election to the council. I submitted 30 nomination signatures of which two or three are probably not good. I only need 20 so I should be in with Flynn. Anyway the following is what I submitted to the OVN a week ago tomorrow. Time will tell.
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OPEN LETTER TO OJAI CITY COUNCIL

You finally showed some spine by firing your hired man but you're still trying to cover your assets. We the People have the right to know why you fired him since we hire and fire you. Take a cue from the OVN owner that when there's a system failure manage it yourself. Stop the secret backroom deals and level openly with us. You're been bowled over by big city slickers who are stealing control from us. They have infiltrated the Music Festival and they're using it to take over the city. This is a battle for the soul of Ojai more vital than external dumps and highways because it's corruption from within. Tell the contributors to fire the festival top management or there will be no more of their music in our park. This whole project is based on fraud and therefore the contract is VOID. Donors have to face the truth or Libbey Bowl will turn into a Toilet Bowl. With LA to the south and Santa Barbara to the north Ojai does not need a world class bowl with two star dressing rooms especially in this economy. It's out of character and if we are not true to ourselves we'll be false to everyone including ourselves. With each desparate attempt to extricate yourself from being flushed down the bowl trap you sink deeper. On the same night you fired the manager you violated state law and our rights by not giving us a mandated and noticed agenda so we knew what was going on beforehand regarding the new lease. Lennie Klaif warned you but you ignored him and the law. We didn't see the new lease until the deal was done and then it reads like we elected the festival leaders and they appointed you. You proved once again that you have no respect for us or love for the real Ojai. You blame the manager and he probably blames you. You used him as a scapegoat to avoid your own responsibility despite his acting with your explicit or implied authority. You lied to us with the cover story of the festival paying up front as if they were doing us a special favor. Everyone pays up front except in a fraudulent culture. Did you ever pay for groceries with cash and pledges? The deal was supposed to be paid up front by city and festival in cash but in a bait and switch shuffle prices went up and pledges went in. You were accomplices to this fraud. I know because it happened to me when we lost our home and a quarter million. Lawyers and courts did not help then nor will they now. I learned the hard way and now I'm more free, secure and happy. It's up to us to face our own corruption and clean house. The second lie you told on Firing Night was that the 25-25 year deal is better than the 99 year one. It isn't. In fact it's worse because it gives pledgers an excuse not to honor them. Who's going to remember or care in 25 years about the difference between 25, 35, 50 or 99 years? The third lie was about the condition of the old bowl and the trees. Where's your termite report that the bowl had deteriorated beyond repair or that the trees were unhealthy and dangerous? I saw the crosscuts which looked beautifully healthy. If the bowl was unsafe and dilapidated why was it used right up to the final month? The fourth lie is that you dictated the terms. False. All you did was change 99 years to 25-25 to get the project passed which is no gain. The fifth lie is that the city is the lead agency. The festival led you by the nose into a deal you should have refused but felt you couldn't turn down and so you were conned by your own fears. If you lack the backbone to sit on a wooden bench with seat pads then you can go north or south to those world class cushioned armchairs and star dressing rooms. Ojai does not need a high society bowl but can support a non-class working bowl. Cancel your vacations and cancel the contract. Rebuild an affordable bown with cash and without slick illusions of grandeur. Put the design out to bid. The festival fundraisers are not fundpayers. We the People always pay up front and in the end. Fundraisers pay themselves first and last. Sure there's corruption everywere you look but Ojai has a higher standard of love for all. Make Ojai the lead agency and rename the project Liberty Bowl because the whole experience will set us free to be who we were meant to be.
-Dennis Leary, Ojai

The following is my prepared talk to the Ojai City Council 7/27/10 on the Libbey Bowl scandal:
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Whether the lease is traditional is beside the point and not relevant, as well as the fine points stated by Mr. Widders. This is not a civil contract. It's more like a hit contract. The people of Ojai are taking the hit and you are the hit men and femen. Why does one group get the red carpet and other groups pay with their red blood, sweat and tears? Why does a music festival pay 3 cents a day over 25 days for 50 years while rock groups and story tellers pay through the nose? The answer my friends is blowing in the wind, the wind of Ojai political corruption. If there was any justice in the Ventura courts I'd sue you myself. This contract is based on fraud and in civil contract law that makes it void. Unfortunately the judges and lawyers are void of justice. The true financial facts were never fully disclosed or so it appears amidst the smokescreens. When all the initial and ongoing expenses are taken into account it's wishful thinking that the city is going to benefit. The beneficiaries of this deal are self appointed cultural elites who apparently need prestige events to prop up their insecure egos. I saved a piece of wood from the old bowl as a reminder of how inflated egos can destroy beautiful trees, towns and buildings rather than fix and maintain them, wasting millions and forcing taxpayers to foot the bill. Voltaire once help up a piece of wood and said if all the pieces of the true cross were gathered into one place there would be enough wood to build a battleship. If we could gather all the star crossed wooden heads of the city and its royal retinue into one place and bring them down to reality we could make Ojai into a model town for a wonderful world of liberty and justice for all. The long and short of it is don't vote for this lease or your names will go down in Ojai history as released too early from the Ojai jail. Rather make one standard agreement for bowl renters equally with no fair haired or hair brained favorites. Don't make the Ojai Bowl a superbowl for some and a soupbowl for others. That's not American fair play nor an Ojai pink moment. The Ojai moon ought to shine equally on all. The rationale of favored nation status for fundraising services is a bowl that doesn't hold water. I don't recall the city asking for it. Nor do I remember the city asking the citizens. Even if it did, the fundraising was supposed to be all cash hopefully with no back room strings attached. Don't kid yourself. Fundraisers are in it for power and profit. That's OK but not if they're playing with the people's money without their consent due to your mismanagement. You could cancel the contract on the basis of fraud and start all over and do it right for a lot less money without a shady middleman or woman. Now that would be a bowl and a half-time show: the Super Bowl for the rich versus the Soup Bowl for the poor. Maybe Theater 150 actors could stage it and get a sweetheart deal too like the musical chairs on Signal and Topa Topa. Or we could hold council meetings in the bowl since they're becoming the best show in town, and make more than 3 cents a day.
-Dennis Leary, Ojai

I sent the following letter to the editor of the VIEW, the only local medium that comes anywhere close to telling the truth. It concerns the corruption and illegality surrounding the destruction of the old Libbey Bowl and the building of its replacement. I will make it a prominent part of my campaign this fall for city council membership. #187 is the talk I gave at the city council meeting of 7/27/10 on the same subject.

Dear editor and fellow citizens regarding Libbey Bowl:

The Ojai city council meeting of 7/27/10 should go down in history as the black day the city cabal doubled down on double dealing. It was a rush job that violated state law and gave birth to some unusually spurious and specious arguments even by previous standards of sophistry. Lennie Klaif's sane and lawyerly advice was ignored. Talk about double standards. The public know nothing about the new lease until Mr. Widders gave his summary with unagendized zero notice time. The secretary was provided with a couple of copies one of which the finance director took and rushed out to make copies for the public, none of which was distributed but left stacked on a table. I picked up my copy on my way out after the deal was done. What ever happened to due process and the state law on 72 hours notice with a proper agenda? I had no chance to read the 40 page densely packed legalese lease during the discussion or time to prepare a response other than to say Mr. Widders' statements were beside the point and not relevant [and speculative I might have added] This agenda item was misleadingly labeled "Discussion item" when it was really an action item in clear violation of law and the rule which is read every meeting prior to "public communications": "Under State law, other than for emergency items, no action can be taken" [on discussion items]. The public was fooled and foiled again by slippery arguments with no time to challenge them. The argument that the festivals are paying "up front" is deceptive. The festival staff is getting the money from the public and far from paying up front is taking their cut up front. The festival fundraiserss are not at all paying all up front as initially promised; much of it is in pledges and doesn't include what the city pays. If I had time to think I would have said ordinary folk always pay up front so the festivalers are not doing the city any special favors. In fact, the city would be better off without this festive middleman taking his cut up front. Did you ever try to buy groceries with cash and pledges? If I was sarcastic I would also add that hit contracts are partly paid up front and later by fulfilled pledges when the job is done. Then there's the 25-25 year deal that sounds good but isn't if we are given time to think. The 25-25 con still leaves the city holding the bag of pledges because a crafty pledger is going to realize that in 25 years no one is going to remember or care about the pro rated cut in years for not honoring pledges. In their rush to please the festivers the council fell over themselves and their friends and fell into the trap of delusion and deceit. Some were in such a hurry to make a motion and second that they cut off others from making their comments. Other than planned obsolescence, since when is 50 years the life of a building? Properly maintained buildings can last 500 years. $20,000 to $30,000 years in preventive care is not 2 or 3 million in new construction plus a million or two in architectural and other fees. The council inadvertently let the cat out of the bag when it referred to the elite, double standards, level playing fields, hurt feelings by other groups, world class, paying more than 50%, fair relationships, a win-win (by city and cabal) and the hope of going from negative to positive (implying a negative baseline). In sum, this rush job turned into a push job with law and the public good pushed aside by private greeds and ego needs. The council proudly claimed to have dictated the 25-25 deal (probably due to the membership change) as opposed to the 99 year rip off dictated to them. But this too is specious when the public is blacked out in the rush to please the city elitist cabal. Taking charge is good but overcharging the overtaxed public is not. Progress is good but one step forward and two steps back into the dark ages is not. We stilll have a few things to learn about love and justice from this debacle in the bowl.

I'm running for election to city council again as I did in 2006. How time flies. I got 700+ votes in '06 and I figure I need twice that to win now. I'll be discussing the issues here locally and at Love Government Blogstream globally; you know the saying: think global and act local. Red Brown and Blue Party is the emotional driver but I can't say I'm a member of that party as far as the Ojai election goes. It should be a fun time as it usually is. I'll keep us posted here and at Love Government Blogstream. I'll make occasional references to my other sites in case anyone (including myself) wants know more.

But first I want to type here the talk I gave at the last council meeting. I'm pretty tough on the present council as I hope someone will be on me if I ever join the elect(ed). I just saw a council person her [sic] in the public Ojai library and was very friendly in my own way. I love these people but hate their policies, a good distinction to keep in mind lest I get borne away on the winds of passion.

The following was delivered to the Ojai council July 13, 2010 and the same was submitted to the Ojai View, a local paper known for critical thinking, a quality sadly lacking in the other media outlets here in our fair / unfair city:
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The June View makes allegations on the Libbey Bowl project. So far no one has responded lending credence. This is a shocking, burning issue but the media, principals, pillars and living treasures ignore and marginalize critical thinking. The View ought to get the Ojai Noble Peace Prize and Living Treasure for its courageous expose of corruption at its finest. Corruption is "rupture of the heart." I'm waiting for OVN conservatives, Ojai Post liberals, Defense Funders, the Chamber, churches, Green Coalitioners, politicians and good citizens to take the stand against corruption. But I fear their hearts are ruptured like mine. Ojaians are conned by the oldest prostitute trick: Bait and Switch. Read all about it in the View if you have courage more than a door mouse. The bait "bids are going out" is switched to a no bid contract for a former mayor. Mr. Bury said to me in these very chambers on the subject of conflict of interest: "that's the way it is in small towns," giving an official seal of approval to local corruption. The bait "bridge loan in place" switches to a missing bridge. The bait: no "contract if all the money is not in the bank and that means cash money, not pledges" switches to: five year pledges are gold in the bank despite a crumbling economy. Public funds are raided by rapists in the park "drinkin' and thinkin' they have it made" on your "watch and tell" and that ain't no Esther story from the bible. But the town molestors are not done screwing Ojai. They have a $1 per year 99 year contract for you Benedict Arnolds and Judases to sign. Just don't do it with a kiss. If I were on Council these double dealers wouldn't get a cent of Ojai funds. I'd move to break the contract tonight. Civil contract law is crystal clear: contracts based on fraud and failure of full disclosure are VOID. Do you remember cancelling a rock and roll concert contract until a lawyer of the fair sex strong-armed you? You hypocrites (and I include your voters) have a double standard--one for rock and rollers and low roller skateboarders who must have a quarer mill cash on the line in the bank to get past your iron fence... (BTW, why not a wood fence like the bike path and Sarzotti Park or is that not tough enough for you on those little criminals?)... The other standard is for yourself and high rollers who talk so loud that two or three million (ten times the skatepark) in unfunded pledges plows over all fences on the way to the city kitty which you abuse as a bank for special interests. Lucky for me, you crypto fascists are public and unlike the private Ojai Post can't ban my free speech yet. Lighten up. Not the city kitty but your corrupt character. Don't make Libbey Bowl a household word for Toilet Bowl. Let it be Liberty Bowl! Do I hear an Amen? Amen.

-Dennis Leary, Ojai