Home » Santa Barbara City Council hears call for impeachment resolution

Santa Barbara City Council hears call for impeachment resolution

Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2006-10-26 18:21.

By VLADIMIR KOGAN, NEWS-PRESS

Community activists calling for the impeachment of President Bush have redoubled their efforts to convince the Santa Barbara City Council to take on the issue, despite skepticism from the city's leaders.

In a coordinated move, approximately 50 members of the Santa Barbara Impeachment Coalition and its supporters turned out for the City Council meeting Tuesday to try to convince the council to consider a local resolution calling for impeachment. In all, about 15 people spoke on the subject, all in support.

"Council members, this administration has lied to Congress and the American people," said Riana Robert, a coalition organizer who distributed an e-mail message during the weekend urging supporters to speak out at the council meeting. "Do we continue to sit idly by and see our Constitution shredded?"

According to Ms. Robert, the public rally was meant to counter criticism of a local impeachment resolution, triggered by a News-Press report on the potential of one going before the City Council.

A resolution needs support of at least two council members to appear on the agenda, and Mayor Marty Blum announced that a co-sponsor was on board at the Democratic Party's annual Labor Day picnic, though she declined in a subsequent interview to identify the interested council member. Following her announcement, opponents of the effort sent out a mass of critical e-mails to members of the council, arguing that the issue of impeachment was not within their jurisdiction, according to Ms. Robert.

To date, a potential resolution continues to go without a second sponsor and, in private meetings with the coalition, some council members have expressed skepticism over the city's role in any impeachment effort.

On Tuesday, many speakers attempted to address the council's concerns, arguing that city residents whose tax dollars are funding the war in Iraq have a direct stake in the debate and warning of a potential for a Katrina-like catastrophe.

"When the National Guard was in need, they were not around. They were in Iraq," Pam Regan told the council.

Others, however, offered more emotional appeals.

"The potential of a Santa Barbara resident, citizen or not, of being swept off in an extraordinary rendition is not just a page out of George Orwell's '1984,' " said Margaret Coleman, referring to the undocumented imprisonment and interrogation of terrorist suspects in foreign prisons. "Are we just going to stand by until this happens at our doorstep?"

Presented before a body used to adjudicating disputes on things like development and water rates, the speeches represented an unusual mix of national politics and local issues. Resident Dorothy Fox, who just minutes earlier spoke out in criticism of a proposed city ordinance limiting the size of remodeled homes, arguing that it would represent a breach of property rights by the local government, rose a second time to address the City Council in support of an impeachment resolution.

"When I heard what this was, I said, 'To hell with big houses, little houses.' This is everybody's house," she told the City Council.

Though no opponents to impeachment received notice of the rally, and thus none attended the meeting, the city's Republican Club has previously criticized proposals for such a resolution.

e-mail: vkogan@newspress.com

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