Councilmembers Meserve and
Groves blasted by public
By Charles Douglas
HUMBOLDT SENTINEL
ARCATA - Despite his inclinations to the contrary, Michael
Machi is Mayor once more as the records of Councilmembers
Harmony Groves and especially Dave Meserve were blasted during
public comment proceeding the vote.
|  For
a moment it had looked like the Council would maintain
its recent pattern of rotating the Mayor’s office,
which consists of few responsibilities beyond chairing
meetings, publishing agendas and cutting the occasional
ribbon.
Councilmember Paul Pitino’s motion
to elect Meserve, however, failed for a lack of a second,
and Groves quickly turned around to move in favor of
re-electing Machi with the support of Councilmember
Mark Wheetley -- in a pattern of siding with her more
conservative colleagues that the nominally Green Groves
has increasingly exhibited throughout her first year
in office.
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Groves was quick to thank Meserve and tried smooth over previously
expressed apprehensions over her lack of support for the issues
raised by the Greens and her fellow party members on the Council.
“I do support the work that you’ve done Dave
[Meserve], but I’m looking for continuity in the choice
for City Manager,” Groves said.
 Groves
said she also didn’t want the mayoral selection to play
a role next year when Meserve and Wheetley are both likely
to receive strong re-election challenges, although the Mayor
has in fact run for re-election in three of the last four
elections.
Animal rights advocate Barbara Shults was similarly confident
in Machi as well as in Pitino, as opposed to Meserve or to
Groves herself, who Shults claimed to have ignored her attempts
to contact the Councilmember over an urgent animal abuse case.
“There is a lack of addressing dogs in crates…this
is unacceptable,” Shults said. “I am done with
you.”
Shults said she supported Machi and Pitino for the interest
they’ve shown in the creation of a committee on animal
welfare, and repeated her story of a pack of dogs trapped
in the back of a truck on South G Street, with the Arcata
Police Department failing to make any citations.
“The [dogs] have been repeatedly tranquilized,”
Shults said.
 Arcata
resident Maureen Welsh, a longtime Machi booster, had a more
cheerful view of Groves, although she referred to the only
female Councilmember as “Tiffany” on several occasions
to laughs from the audience. Welsh urged Councilmembers to
keep themselves from returning to behaviors exhibited previously
when Meserve helped put former Councilmembers Connie Stewart
and Bob Ornelas into the Mayor’s seat where their decorum
was repeatedly criticized.
“I entreat you not to elect Mr. Meserve as Mayor,”
Welsh said. “If there is such a thing as Mayoral temperament,
it is absent there.”
Machi was similarly endorsed by six of the seven following
speakers, including city employees, union representatives
and Denise Helwig, Special Assistant to Humboldt State University
President Rollin Richmond. She delivered a special message
from HSUs chief of state on who he’d like to see chosen
as chief of state for Arcata, although the town had no direct
influence over his own selection.
“President Richmond would be pleased to see Mayor Machi
continue in his post,” Helwig said.
In pro forma 5-0 votes, Councilmembers also chose Machi and
Groves for Chair and Vice Chair positions for the Community
Development Agency and the Joint Powers Financing Authority.
As the audience cleared out after cheering his re-election,
Machi thanked, among others, his father for giving him the
strength to serve.
“Believe it or not, but public speaking was not my
first thing,” he said.
Looking to provide historical help as the only Councilmember
serving a second term, Machi said he was looking to help staff
in making a smooth transition as the departure of Dan Hauser
as City Manager draws near.
“I really like the new Council here,” he said.
“It’s a great improvement from previous years,
there’s a sharp change of attitude.”
Wheetley, who nominated Groves for Vice Mayor, thanked her
and Machi for agreeing to serve.
“We have a very ambitious and important year ahead
of us,” Wheetley said.
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