Editorial: Oakley Councilman Should Deal in Reality, Not Pot Stirring

In a rather bizarre blog post, Oakley City Councilman George Fuller made several statements and accusations against his fellow councilmmebers that are misleading and simply nothing more than pot stirring.

He cited the July 13 Oakley City Council meeting where he accused councilwoman Anissa Williams calling for a discussion of his social media posts and an attempt to censor his media content all while calling him a liar – that is not true.

I didn’t remember the meeting that way and ended up re-listening to the comments made by Williams as well as transcribing them (see below). Fuller essentially lied and is misleading his base into some form of outrage on Nextdoor, Facebook and creating division in the city.

This is nothing new to Fuller who has used social media through his blog to stir the pot, mislead residents and create a headache for everyone–and those who know my history, know I have been very hard on City of Oakley in the past but Fuller is taking this to a whole other level with blatant lies.

This can all be verified because the meeting is recorded which includes both audio and video. It didn’t happen as he claimed.

Here is the transcript (from the council meeting) followed by a copy of what Mr. Fuller wrote on his blog, which is apparently from an alternate universe:

Councilmember Anissa Williams issued the following request for a future agenda item (3:38 min mark)

“I would love if we could do some sort of work session or something to discuss better ways of working so we can make sure we are meeting our citizens and constituents needs in a respectful manner and just make sure we all work together and communicate outside of here gets everybody’s needs met. There has been a lot of social media and getting people riled up and I would just like us to come to an agreement about how we are going to either put things out on social media, especially if there is no evidence or proof for it, I would just like a working session around what our social media platform will be or how we will sort of work with each other on that so we are not getting people unduly upset about things that are not actually happening. It makes the job of city council that much harder”

Vice Mayor Randy Pope agreed and seconded the request by Williams.

“I don’t know what we would call it, integrity commission, or ethics commission or just a cooperative spirit of working together commission, I don’t know what but something. So I support that,” said Pope.

Mayor Sue Higgins stated she also supported that.

“There was a lot of social media misunderstandings that was brought to my attention,” said Higgins.

Here is a copy of Councilman’s Fullers Post:

Oakley City Council Ethics

Oakley City Council Ethics. During the Oakley City Council meeting of July 13, 2021, Councilmember Williams called for a discussion of my social media posts. My thoughts she intends to censor the social media content. During the conversation, she characterized all my postings as lies. Yes, labeling me a liar from the council dais is an issue that must, and will, be resolved and corrected.

I have attached a letter to Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton requesting an investigation of Vice-Mayor Pope and Mayor Higgins of failing to notify all councilmembers that Bryan Montgomery was resigning ad the two were in the process of selecting an Interim City Manager. The process, sanctioned by City Attorney Cole, was an insult to the community, to the councilmembers, including me. Vice-Mayor Pope questioned my ethics from the council dais, also an intolerable situation. City Attorney Cole indicated Vice-Mayor Pope and Mayor Higgins met as an ad hoc committee based on a 2008 Oakley resolution that authorized the Mayor and Vice-Mayor to meet with the City Manager to negotiate his salary. The resolution expired after the year.

Your responses to social media posts are always welcomed on the medium, and I am sure City Council members would be happy to hear of any plans to censor such posts.

Below is a copy of the documents that were forwarded to DA Diana Becton.

https://fullerforoakley.net/2021/07/28/oakley-city-council-ethics/

Sadly, this is politics at its worst.  At some point, Oakley residents are going to have to question his motives and if what he is doing is causing more harm than a greater good.

Remember, this is the same guy who riled up the community by not understanding a City Budget and claimed the city was  “squirreling away” $20,000,000.00 “someplace” while denying necessary services for the health, safety, and welfare of the community — again, not true as the budget is a public document.

But for the council, they cannot stand by idle any longer and allow this nonsense to continue. They must now take action against a fellow councilmember who is being reckless and flat out lying to the public. For starters,

Two things should immediately happen.

1. Mr. Fuller should publicly apologize
2.  The Oakley City Council should begin a censure process

Ironically, with Fuller acting like a knucklehead and Oakley in the middle of a search for a new City Manager, do you think any quality candidate would want to come work for a riled-up community who believes the fix all based off a knucklehead providing erroneous information to the public over the process?

Simply put, Fuller is his own worst enemy and is sabotaging his own goal in the city manager search.

Furthermore, his blog posts, which are opinion in nature, may fall under Brown Act Violations given he is stating his opinion out to the public ahead of agenda items — such as District Elections and possibly a 4-year Mayor term. He also is filing erroneous FPPC violation complaints against his fellow council members — as far as I know, those have been deemed unfounded.

Bottom line, Fuller is not playing nice nor his is actions very bright.

Given his latest lie, actions must be taken to limit the shenanigans going on which is wasting a lot of peoples time. It starts with censure. If it continues, perhaps a request for resignation or the start of a recall may be in order.

Mike Burkholder
Publisher of ECT
[email protected]