For those on the council, these are my thoughts which are too long for the allotted time for public speaking. I will be reading a condensed statement derived from the following. Please include this in your agenda packet as communication. I will be asking the same of your deputy city clerk and will also include the city clerk in my email communication.
August 12, 2025
As I was not able to finish my comments at your last meeting I will finish them here and now. I am under no presumption that you will take my recommended actions so I am simply here attempting, one more time, to educate those who prefer ignorance over enlightenment.
As you evidently don’t know how to use a dictionary, Mayor Ford, and prefer to be validated by a habitual liar impersonating an attorney, I give you Merriam Webster’s definition of ceremony:
1: a formal act or series of acts prescribed by ritual, protocol, or convention the marriage ceremony
2 a: a conventional act of politeness or etiquette
the ceremony of introduction
b: an action performed only formally with no deep significance the custom had probably been long a mere ceremony
—C. Thirlwall
c: a routine action performed with elaborate pomp
...William McComb and Liz Claiborne ... rang the closing bell [of the New York Stock Exchange], a daily ceremony ...
As you can see, Mayor Ford, it is quite clear that all of these definitions define a “ceremony”, which Mr. Bakker claims the Pledge and Land Acknowledgement to be, as an “action or act” which are rather synonymous.
It would seem that Mr. Bakker has no more ability than you, Mr. Mayor, to access a dictionary.
Perhaps he would like a legal source other than my city attorney who stated he is wrong. I direct you to Law Insider: Ceremony means a formal act or set of formal acts established by custom or authority to commemorate a decedent.
If Mr. Bakker would like a little more schooling from legal experts, of which I am not, I refer him to Black's Law Dictionary 7th Edition: act: (noun) Something done or performed. Saying the pledge or the land acknowledgement is the act of doing them, or performing them if you prefer. Therefore even if this is a ceremony, a ceremony in and of itself is an action. In agreeing with my stance over Mr. Bakker’s, you are accepting the experts in both English language and law not myself personally if that makes you feel any better.
In regard to Mr. Bakker’s apology to the council at the last meeting, it is interesting that John prefers to hide the truth from the public and the council by stating he made a mistake in attaching Mr. O’Bid’s remarks in response to Ms. Alderman’s request to meet with you public representatives.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Mr. Bakker’s email response confirms my point. Mr. Bakker’s states, “because of the potential for litigation it is inappropriate for the councilmembers to meet regarding Ms. Alderman’s issues because they may bias themselves and not be able to participate in decision making regarding litigation”. What Bakker isn’t telling you is this potential litigation may be avoided if you were fully aware of the situation.
Besides attempting to protect Mr. O’Bid’s unwarranted, illegal, and unprofessional response to the public he was hired to serve, what Mr. Bakker is really saying in his response to Ms.
Alderman is he doesn’t want the council to know all of the facts, only the ones he wishes them to know. As a councilman, it was my duty to provide oversight on city staff as well as to understand the intent of the Constitutions of the United States and the State of California, an oath we all take upon entering office. City staffs just hate it when you actually do your job rather than rubber stamping everything and anything they suggest. Very few elected officials accept this or actually do it. They would all rather be part of a big happy family of governmental officials whose only loyalty is to their paychecks.
Email on Friday June 17th from Damien O’Bid to John Bakker with a carbon copy to Robert Smith: “ ... nuisance emails like these and the associated PRAs are a daily occurrence and a collective ongoing waste of time. Not to mention the conspiracies and unlawful behavior diatribes at city council meetings and appeals to the FPPC and other State bodies to intervene.
It’s a full court press on their end to derail/delay things and another reason to strongly encourage the AHO to wrap this code case up as soon as possible.” As I stated at the last meeting, the CPRA has a purpose in opposition to your staff’s desire to hide the truth. “Implicit in a democratic process is the notion that government should be accountable for its actions. In order to verify accountability, individuals must have access to government files. Such access permits checks against the arbitrary exercise of official power and secrecy in the political process.[6]”
Viewing public records requests as a “nuisance” and a “waste of time” by Mr. O’Bid is not surprising when you are attempting to hide your regime’s collusion and corruption. In addition, O’Bid has proven he is attempting to influence how a supposedly neutral unbiased Administrative Hearing officer or ALJ is proceeding to hear a case in front of him.
O’Bid is partially correct on one thing: this will turn into a full court press by the public to correct our ongoing grievances with this system, your system.
The question has now become “who is Bakker and O’Bid trying to protect?” Is it this council from litigation which could be avoided if you knew the truth or is it themselves from the check against “the arbitrary exercise of official power and secrecy in the political process.” This is also known as the abuse of authority under the color of law.
It is now time for you to do your job and consider replacements for these two positions whose employment you control. O’Bid can be fired for cause and Bakker for errantly backing this system and misinterpreting law for the elected. As a council, you either take action to correct this situation or you incriminate yourself by continuing down this path of retribution, retaliation, and illegal punishment which these two are obviously doing at your behest.