Begin forwarded message:
From: bill conners
Date: June 27, 2012 3:18:21 PM PDT
To: charles marsala
Cc: Jennifer Larson
Subject: Re: Edits to Athertonian Letter -- "Inaccurate Accusations" ---
Reply-To: bill conners
Charles,
I can't speak for the Mayor or Theresa, but the legal department does still believe there is enough confusion, real or potential, given the closeness of the names and the fact that one is government sponsored, the other not connected at all, that some separation would be advisable.
As you may not have noticed, the item removed from the agenda had two parts. The second was the potential letter, the first was a suggestion that the Town change the name of its newsletter to "The Athertonian, Official Newsletter of the Town of Atherton" or similar distinct clarification. That's pretty clear. We also will be recommending that all of our websites contain no links to any non-Town website or group of any kind, and where some potential for confusion exists, such as Athertonians v. The Athertonian, we are certainly free to place disclaimers on any or all of our websites that Athertonians is not affiliated with the Town in any way. If the group is not willing to even discuss name revisions for the sake of clarity only, then we believe the Town should step up and make the distinction on its own. We seek to avoid any future confusion where some liability might arise and the user claims that they thought it was a Town affiliated site, and this appears to be the best way to do so. Thanks. Bill Conners
From: charles marsala
To: Theresa DellaSanta
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 2:40 PM
Subject: Re: Edits to Athertonian Letter -- "Inaccurate Accusations" ---
Bill W, & Bill C, Theresa,
When I noticed the letter last Saturday, I sent an email to the Mayor. Bill W. added the city attorney and Theresa. So I added those two to my list. I was hoping to hear back from the mayor.
I agree with you but I think the WHOLE controversy was unnecessary. Starting with the April Council meeting, when council was very critical of the Athertonians. In the two weeks prior to the council meeting Kathy and Smith McKeithen wrote letters to the editor critical of the Athertonians. The mayor's letter would have come from the town with more several accusations.
My belief is that had I not questioned the letter prior to the meeting, it might have been approved on the consent calendar.
I did speak under public comments, but also spoke on the tennis courts. So maybe my comments were missed.
Since it was not discussed, and now dropped how does the Mayor feel about the Athertonians? Does he still stand by those views in the letter? Does the town still want the Athertonians to change their name?
It is about getting closure. In April Staff was advised by the council to take action and call a speical meeting if necessary. Is it all past us?
Charles
Charles,
Additionally, although I respectfully disagree with your accusations that it was “hidden” on consent and believe it to be completely absurd, I encourage you to continue your dialogue with the Town to find out the facts before you send me accusatory emails. My door is always open.
Thank you,
Theresa
From: Theresa DellaSanta
To: 'charles marsala'
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 1:06 PM
Subject: RE: Edits to Athertonian Letter -- "Inaccurate Accusations" ---
Charles
It was my suggestion at the beginning of the meeting to remove the item. I believe the controversy it created was unnecessary. I noted that anyone who showed up to speak on the item was welcome to discuss it under public comments. I’m sorry you missed that. I don’t see any reason to continually talk about the subject either. In order to get things accomplished we need to yield a more positive attitude to this Town.
Regarding the library donor funds – As I said last night, once Debra and I are complete with our background information and research we will bring it back to Council.
Thank you,
Theresa
From: charles marsala [mailto:cemarsala@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 12:58 PM
To: Bill Widmer; bill conners; Theresa DellaSanta
Subject: Fw: Edits to Athertonian Letter -- "Inaccurate Accusations" ---
Bill W, Bill C, and Theresa,
Any reason why you pulled this off the agenda last night? I sent out an email and people turned out to speak on this item and it was cancelled. It the town was trying to send out an inaccurate, and unfounded letter to discredit and undermine a group that informs residents about town issues. And by having it on the consent calendar, the town thought no one would notice.
Once it was caught and people were going to turned out to speak, you realized it was going to look bad and cancelled it.
Suggestion put the Library surplus donor funds being kept with the town on the next agenda.
Charles
.
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: charles marsala
To: william widmer
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 7:31 AM
Subject: Fw: Edits to Athertonian Letter -- "Inaccurate Accusations" --- "
Bill W, Mayor
Bill C, City Attorney
and Theresa, Interim City Manager
When I read the "draft" letter to the Athertonian moderators, placed on the consent calendar for tonight's meeting, I was alarmed, I felt it to be inaccurate, unprofessional, and undermining. I sent a letter to Bill W on Saturday. Bill W referred me to staff, stating that staff had drafted the letter. On Monday staff responded stating the mayor and maybe a council member made edits. Bill W emailed yesterday at 2:09pm: "All, I neither wrote nor edited the letter."
Then at 10:16pm Bill W. wrote me that he did make edits with the attachment showing the edits. It appears at 8:56pm on Thursday June 14th, he advised Theresa to add the word "inaccurate" infront of the word accusations. And add the words "unfounded and unprofessional" infront of the word comments. In my opinion these are major changes.
There is a big difference if people are posting "accurate statements and comments" or "inaccurate statements and unfounded comments". When I asked for documentation to support the statements in the June 14th draft letter claiming "inaccurate" statements, I was told staff would have that documentation since they drafted the letter.
However, staff did not put the words "inaccurate, unfounded, and unprofessional" in the letter, which has completely changed the letter staff drafted. I find the draft letter to be "inaccurate", "unfounded", and "underming" to the residents that have donated their time to allow residents to express their opinion on issues including traffic, sudden oak death syndrome, and the park.
Looking at the site, there are so few postings. I have asked for the mayor or staff to identify any "inaccurate postings" otherwise the town is making "unfounded and unprofessional" comments.
From Bill W. "I am not in agreement that all the claims or views on this website are accurate. In some cases they are selective, in other cases inaccurate postings are permitted which fuel multiple follow on letters while potentially other letters are rejected for inaccuracies."
Regards,
Charles Marsala
.
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Bill Widmer
To: "cemarsala@yahoo.com"
Cc: Theresa DellaSanta
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 10:16 PM
Subject: Edits to Athertonian Letter
Hi Charles
Having read your latest note to Bill, I see there are some words which you are questioning that I added to the doc. The attached word doc with track changes indicates the rough draft I received with the edits I made. Whilst we can discuss a word addition here vs there, my editorial changes did not modify the factual content drafted by the Attorney's office. The attorney's office did not go over the letter or overall Athertonian communications with either Theresa or I.
As you know from my discussions on the wordpress site, and in an earlier email, I am not in agreement that all the claims or views on this website are accurate. In some cases they are selective, in other cases inaccurate postings are permitted which fuel multiple follow on letters while potentially other letters are rejected for inaccuracies.
Unbiased is unbiased.
The site is a good communication vehicle. It has served many in the Town well for a number of years by passing on news and announcements. Care must be maintained not to cross the line into personal attacks and to keep the messaging as clear with the most factual information.
Best Regards,
Bill Widmer
Mayor
Town of Atherton
650 530 0078
From: Bill Widmer
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2012 8:56 PM
To: Theresa DellaSanta
Subject:
here are some minor edits
Best Regards,
Bill Widmer
Mayor
Town of Atherton
650 530 0078
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Bill Widmer
To: bill conners
Cc: Theresa DellaSanta
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 2:09 PM
Subject: RE: The Athertonian confusion
All,
I neither wrote, nor edited the letter. I did not speak to Jennifer about it either.
Best Regards,
Bill Widmer
Mayor
Town of Atherton
650 530 0078
The Athertonians Yahoo Users’ Group
By email to athertonians-owner@yahoogroups.com
June 14, 2012
Dear Athertonians:
The Town of Atherton first reached out to you to address claims of confusion between your group and the Town’s official newsletter, the Athertonian. Despite a promise of confidentiality from Town staff, you refused to discuss the issues raised by the Town. As a final attempt, we proposed two reasonable mitigation measures that would reduce the potential for confusion: 1) a more visible disclaimer on the Athertonians website, and 2) a small name modification. Again you never responded to the Town. Instead, you immediately released a strongly-worded statement to the media containing a barrage of inaccurate accusations against Town leadership and unfounded and unprofessional comments directed towards individual council members. Ironically, you took this action while claiming to be “non-partisan.”
While we welcome open discourse on town issues, free speech does not include the right to knowingly disseminate false statements about the Council in an effort to undermine their efforts. To the extent that you intentionally spread lies about the Council, we will not hesitate to take all possible steps to protect the work we have done on behalf of and for the benefit of all the residents of Atherton. Although we may disagree on individual issues, we have been and remain united in our commitment to open communication and a healthy political process.
Sincerely,
William Widmer, Mayor
From: bill conners [bslawstuff@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 1:28 PM
To: charles marsala
Cc: James.Dobbie.External; Jerry.Carlson.External; Kathy.McKeithen.External; Elizabeth.Lewis.External; Bill Widmer; Theresa DellaSanta; Jennifer Larson
Subject: Re: The Athertonian confusion
The reason for the slight delay is that I needed information from the Assistant City Attorney who as you can see actually drafted the staff report. I now have the background and can respond. I felt it was important to give accurate information which unfortunately takes a little time.
First of all, the staff report was drafted by the ACA. The letter was partially drafted by her, but was edited by others, believed to be the Mayor and perhaps a councilmember. We aren't sure exactly who, but I'm sure the Mayor can fill you in and either way we believe the letter is an accurate statement of the law.
The letter does not accuse anyone of lying.It simply states the fact that should this group fail to exercise appropriate responsibility in posting statements, particularly those patently false or known to be false, then they can be held accountable. It seemed fair to point this out since this "free speech" outlet is not open to everyone that wants to join and since they run all comments through a moderator, they can control what is and isn't published. By definition, this is not a users group that facilitates free speech, only that which they feel should be allowed through their filter. All of which is certainly OK as long as they don't cross the line into patent defamation. Even public officials have a right to prevent known lies from being published, and it was felt that to avoid any future confusion, it was well within the rights of the Council to make that point known before anyone later claims they had no idea that they were actually responsible for the veracity of the comments they publish.
Neither the ACA or myself have any reason to make any unfounded accusations against this group. I invite you to re-read the letter which I believe is both fair and accurate. The Council desire to make clear that they have a right to be treated fairly when opinions slip over into knowingly false statements is their opinion which states correctly a legal premise. It does not intimate that Athertonians have done so in the past, only that since they moderate comments that are published and restrict access to this site they need to know that they are ultimately responsible for the content of those items that they allow to be published. Nothing more, nothing less.
I'd be happy to discuss this with you further if you would find that helpful. My cell number is 831.601.1100.
Thanks.
Bill Conners, City Attorney
From: charles marsala
To: bill conners
Cc: bill widmer
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 1:06 PM
Subject: Re: The Athertonian confusion
Dear City Attorney Bill Conners and Mayor Bill Widmer,
On Sunday I wrote Mayor Widmer and yesterday at noon to City Attorney Conners asking for documentation or links to support the letter to be approved tomorrow night accusing the Athertonians of making "Unfounded accusations" against Town Leadership to undermine council efforts.
I received a response yesterday at noon without any documentation. I responded again asking and am disappointed that since then, I have not heard from anyone.
I am concerned that this letter is making unfounded accustions against the Athertonians to undermind their credibility. Please advise me of any documentation you might have to support the claims in your letter.
Regards,
Charles Marsala
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: charles marsala
To: bill conners
Cc: bill widmer
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2012 12:27 PM
Subject: Re: The Athertonian confusion
Bill,
Thanks for the reply.
The Athertonians claim to have taken action and made changes per the orginal letter. The June 14th letter could acknowledge those changes and state they are not acceptible to the council.
The June 14th letter you drafted for the mayor to sign states that the Athertonians "released a barrage of inaccurate accusations" and three more times uses words such as "unfounded comments" , "knowingly disseminate false statements", "intentionally spread lies". Which is stating 4 times they "spread lies"
Your response to me does not specify any lies they are spreading. Could you specify the lies, inaccurate accusations, unfounded comments, and false statements?
You can send me a link to pages on their web site, with an comments.
Thanks
Charles
From: bill conners
To: "cemarsala@yahoo.com"
Cc: bill widmer
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2012 11:51 AM
Subject: The Athertonian confusion
Mr. Marsala,
I have been asked by the Mayor to respond to your email to him since it essentially related to legal issues and emails coming from my office.
This matter arose because of apparent confusion regarding the similarity between the Town's newsletter name "The Athertonian" and the name of a users group, "Athertonians." We believe the confusion to be real, and our own investigation concluded that while a disclaimer was put forth by this anonymous group, it was buried in text and not clearly set out in a manner that would clearly communicate the disconnection between the users group name and the Town of Atherton. There was either a true link to their site associated with the Town's website or an unintended connection as set forth in the following factual scenario outlined by the Assistant City Attorney. In any case, our attempts at communicating with this group was thwarted by them, despite multiple efforts to simply open a dialogue to discuss the problems associated with the closeness of the two names.
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Bill Widmer
To: 'charles marsala'
Cc: 'Theresa DellaSanta'
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2012 6:48 PM
Subject: RE: January 20, agenda
Theresa
As Staff (Legal) drafted this note, I assume they have the substantiation of the claims in it. Please have Bill or Jennifer advise is Charles needs to officially request this via a Public Records Request or what the situation is regarding this.
Bill
From: charles marsala [mailto:cemarsala@yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2012 7:29 AM
To: william widmer
Subject: Fw: January 20, agenda
Dear Mayor Widmer,
Regarding the letter set to be approved at Wednesday's council meeting to be sent to the moderators of the Athertonians@yahoogroups.com.
I have not seen the letter that was sent to the Athertonians that is referenced in your June 14, 2012 letter. Can town staff make the letter avaible or post on the Town's
web site? The June 14th, letter states:
"The Town of Atherton first reached out to you to address claims of
confusion between your group and thTe Town ’s official newsletter, the
Athertonian. Despite a promise of confidentiality from Town staff, you refused to
discuss the issues raised by the Town."
What were the issues raised by the Town? How can the town promise confidentiality?
The June 14th letter goes on: "As a final attempt, we proposed two
reasonable mitigation measures that would reduce the potential for confusion: 1) a
more visible disclaimer on the Athertonians website, and 2) a small name
modification."
Is there really any confusion between the two web site? Both web sites are clear who the owners are. The Athertonians email list only goes out to people who have signed up to receive it. If someone later gets and email from Athertonians @yahoogroups.com after knowingly signing up to get emails, how can they be confused?
I went to the web site and believe the disclaimer to be visible. What is unacceptible to the town?
