Editor:
Re: “Beamish responds to CAO’s statement,” June 21.
After Mr. Machado’s rant – full of half-truth, innuendo and paranoid assumptions – some people I talked to expected that the mayor and council would, at the very least, reprimand him for this inappropriate conduct and publicly distance themselves from his allegations. He is, after all, supposed to be a public servant and should have fact-checked before laying into grass-roots citizens groups exercising their democratic right to hold local government accountable. I was skeptical, myself, that there would be any personal consequences for Mr. Machado, but I was surprised that the mayor would take out a full page ad (presumably taxpayer funded) to give credence to unproven accusations of “bullying” by these groups.
Some of the allegations Mr. Machado made are so ludicrous as to evoke laughter, were they not so infuriating. The hints that these groups have some mysterious financial backer funding “waterfront offices, web pages, legal challenges, expert reports” are blatantly silly. What waterfront offices? The only office space (for the Gibsons Waterfront Defense Association) is donated, and is manned by volunteers.
Anne Miles, Gibsons
