Dear Mr. Spangler...

Dear Mr. Spangler,

Thank you for the welcome to Alameda. I've given your comments thoughtful consideration and here they are.

With all due respect - First, a quick Google search of your name and I can see you indeed have attended an impressive amount of council meetings.

Anyway, let's dissect your comments. You've been following since 1997. So chances are you don't have a preschooler or a grade-schooler that will be in said AUSD schools for the next 13 years. We potentially have differing opinions on how it should be run.

You mention "Mike McMahon is one of the dedicated school board trustees who has been minimizing the damage to AUSD students and their education due to state budget problems since he was first elected eight years ago." But you see sir, I don't want someone who "minimizes" anything. I want someone who PREVENTS it. Remember, I'm pretending to be CEO of Alameda and you don't get a second swing at the bat if you simply "minimized" for eight years. If someone else isn't pulling their weight on the Board, by all means, lets get some names and get some bat swinging started.

You state "governance and business are not the same activity and they require different skill sets". California - how's that working out for you? Oh wait, California is actually run by clowns like me who unknowingly sign petitions that lead to propositions that spring on the demise of the entire state (I'm looking at you Proposition 13). If we would actually let our honest, capable politicians do their jobs, maybe it would be slightly better. But I still don't think they are different skill sets. The skill set is being simply awesome and running/leading something better than anyone (Remember? If you're going to be a bear be a grizzly). You know how top executives can go from one company to a completely different one and still make it rock? That's the skill set.

So Mr. McMahon worked as an executive in a large retail chain so has business experience. You mean Mervyns? Aren't they bankrupt? From Wikipedia:

Mervyns was an American middle scale department store chain based in Hayward, California. It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, and housewares. Many of the company's stores were found in shopping malls. Based on 2005 revenue, Mervyns was the eighty-third largest retailer in the United States.

In December 2006, Mervyns had 189 stores in 10 states. However, Mervyns closed all of their locations in Oregon and Washington by February 2007, reducing its store count to 177 stores in 7 states. The company said it closed underperforming locations that did not contribute to the company's success. In July 2008, Mervyns announced it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Three months later (October 17, 2008), the company announced that it would liquidate its assets through a Chapter 7 filing. On October 31, 2008, Mervyn's began the process of liquidating its entire inventory in an effort to repay its creditors, and, by December 31, 2008, all remaining locations were closed. Then, on February 11, 2009, the Morris family announced that they had bought back intellectual property as well as naming rights to the company, their hope being to relaunch as an internet-based enterprise.

I'm sure Mr. MacMahon was not responsible for its demise but that comment doesn't buy me the street cred I'm personally looking for. And don't worry, he's still on my "potential" list. I saw him during the Board's school closure meeting and he impressed me much more than at the candidate forum and I'm still leaning towards partnering "old ways" with "new ways". It's just a matter of which one.

Finally you say "You will sleep better at night if you vote for the best. I did, and I do." The problem is, I was sleeping just fine. Then I started worrying about my children's future. Now I don't sleep at all and had to dust off my old blog site to rant and rave at wee hours of the night.

So honestly, I do appreciate how respectful your comments were in trying to convince me otherwise. My writing style is somewhat sassy but please note that I am truly a nice, respectful person too. And I may still vote for Mr. MacMahon. I'm going to look into it further. Lack of sleep sometimes makes me cranky.

For politubing's sake, can't find a Mike MacMahon video, but here's an inspiring little diddy, I think this organization isn't doing much now but is somehow tied with CSBA.org. I'm not endorsing it, I just liked it...