Bizarre!  Paula Deel needs to fact-check herself.

    During the Newberry CSD Board meeting on December 10, 2024, both Directors Mike Matson and Jack Unger questioned Chairwoman Paula Deel's statement that the CSD should still be following an eleven-year-old advisement from a Grand Jury panel.

    As reported in the previous news blog, in November (2024) Deel was promoting a policy that continued a restriction on the audio recording of CSD meetings. In early December, she realized that the policy didn't include videos.

    She then quickly jumped on the pettiness of wanting the CSD's policies to restrict videos!  Gasp!  The clogging of such ridiculous agenda items by Deel (and Director Jack Unger) on monthly meetings makes public attendance at the meetings tedious!  The meetings run for hours.

    Director Matson reasoned that the current board doesn't have the problems that a Grand Jury reported over a decade ago. He stated that restricting board recordings based on another board's failures may not be relevant. Director Unger followed with statements aligning with Director Matson.

    At the root of the problem, Matson and Unger accepted Paula Deel's delusional claim that the 2012-2013 Grand Jury allegedly advised against the public good of the CSD audio recording its meetings.

    There has been public testimony that Deel's understanding is in grave error and that the Grand Jury report says nothing about what Paula Deel claims.  Deel has failed to substantiate her claim and Mike Matson and Jack Unger should not have erred in accepting Paula Deel's disproven argument.

    There is nothing from the Grand Jury's office that audio or video recordings should not be done. Paula Deel should understand how absurd her argument is under California's disclosure laws that support open government and transparency.

    Unfortunately, Directors Robert Springer, Margie Roberts, Mike Matson and Jack Unger eventually voted unanimously to accept Paula Deel's misguided amendment to add a policy restricting video recordings of board meetings.

    This is as bad as the management of public office can be. The previous month the CSD board upheld the existing policy from General Manager Le Hayes' reign of ceasing the audio recording of board meetings to this month's blockage of video recordings.

    Why is Chairwoman Paula Deel so fixated on blocking public knowledge of the workings of the CSD board?  Why is she so nervous about the meetings being recorded?

    Where is the bogeyman?  Public testimony has been given to the Board that there is nothing in the Grand Jury's report supporting Paula Deel's assertion.

    Why won't Paula Deel fact-check herself?  Is the 79-year-old aging out of competency?  Look at the indicators. Does she imagine what isn't there?  Every community organization that she is associated with is floundering.

    Deel has been given another 4 years to sit on the Newberry CSD board. While she volunteers many hours at the CSD office and has been helpful with the community's social events, the community has been deteriorating on important matters that benefit the long-term.

    As with President Biden, there is a conflict between ego and sensible retirement.