THE LOW-DOWN ON THE TOWN Impudent, uncensored account By C. Castle

A "Real" Reporter

Our eyes popped when we heard the figure -- the school district plans to hire a $70,000-a-year public information officer, and board member Margaret Quinones says the board wants a "real reporter."

Hmmmmmm. Some of us started thinking. $70,000. Why, if we stay in this profession -- and are lucky -- we might make that in say………… a quarter century. We'd have to first put in about five years covering the school board before getting a "real" beat for ten or twenty years and maybe moving on to an editing post shortly before retiring.

$70,000…….

What we could do with $70,000! Why we wouldn't be embarrassed to admit going to social functions to feed ourselves for nothing or seriously consider wrestling a SMART bus boy for that SMRR-subsidized apartment in the new Civic Center.

$70,000..... and for what? To disseminate accurate, coordinated information to the public in a timely manner, according to district officials.

Hey I've done that, we thought. Can't be too hard, especially when the people you quote get to edit your copy so you're not making enemies right and left.

Sure, you'd have to walk through that "labyrinth of information" and report and photograph the insides of classrooms, but that doesn't sound too hard, either, especially when the people you're covering work for your boss.

It all sounded like an $70,000 to us. There must be a downside, we thought, and got to mulling things over before firing off an application.

The budget. That's it. That's where you'd earn the cash. You'd have to understand the budget explanation, explain it to the public and make it sound like you understand it. No easy task.

And the board. Heck, it would be like working for seven extra bosses who aren't always on the same page....

.... and the potentially explosive parents...

.... and the reporters (those who aren't "real") calling you for comments and asking you to explain the budget....

.... and the long school board meetings we can now sneak out of withour our boss watching from the dais...

On second thought, we'll hold the application. That $70,000 doesn't sound like such a deal after all.

Parlee's Last Stand

Heads turned Monday night when Planning Commissioner Eric Parlee stepped out of the audience during an Architectural Review Board meeting, walked up to the dais and sat in Mayor Ken Genser's City Council liaison seat.

Then he started talking about the project being discussed -- a new house that disrupted a row of identical bungalows in the Ocean Park Historic District.

But Parlee's appearance wasn't really so mysterious. It seems planning commissioners rotate as ARB liaisons, and last week it was Parlee's turn. The newer board members had never seen Parlee (or any planning commissioner, for that matter) ever taking the dais.

What made it mysterious was that Parlee's sudden presence went unexplained to the board, some of whose members wondered if he wasn't using the dais instead of the podium to lobby for the new house.

Nonesense, Parlee said, when we contacted him. The Planning Commissioner, who last sat as a liaison "one or two" years ago, was there to make a final appearance before his second term expires next month.

"I showed up because this is the last opportunity I have to do something like this," Parlee said.

"If anyone got the impression I was advocating one way or the other on this particular issue, they're wrong," Parlee said. "I was part and parcel in developing the (Ocean Park) design guidelines.

"I was advocating for a more flexible approach. If you read the (Historic District) guidelines, they say the interpretation should not be rigid and I heard nothing but rigidity. If they think I was trying to intimidate them or influence the argument, no."

So why didn't he stick around for the rest of the meeting?

"I did have to leave," Parlee said. "I had to go back and do some work."