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George Barich
By JEREMY HAY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
George Barich, Cotati gadfly and the city’s most persistent City Hall critic, is now the city’s most frustrated publisher.
Stacks of his new Cotati Independent monthly newspaper have been disappearing from a City Hall table where newspapers and other materials are left for the taking.
“It’s very suspicious,” said Barich on Monday.
After noticing early last week that a stack of 25 papers vanished fast, as did the replacements, he started putting out larger stacks every few hours. They vanished too. As of Monday, he said, 300 copies had gone in a few days.
He said he does not know for sure that the newspapers are being stolen. But even Barich doesn’t believe his newspaper is that popular.
“I think it’s alarming if someone is going in there and throwing papers away or confiscating them,” he said. “It’s very un-American.”
Cotati Police Chief Michael Parish said he was unaware of the issue. City Manager Dianne Thompson could not be reached for comment.
The paper’s first issue echoes the views of Barich and his political allies, criticizing city leaders and an array of positions generally considered to be liberal.
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Cotati can look to San luis Obispo, to know that their community planning can and does work quite well. It is a well run small city despite the neysayers.
There is far too much Barich in this “Independent” “newspaper.” When I read the Press Democrat I don’t read about its editor-in-chief in half of the articles and I wouldn’t want to.
I think it’s great to have access to a paper that is not slanted for the politicians, like the PD is. We need one of these in each town.
Finally something for the people.
Well, Joe, I think Cotati is and should be a laughing stock. The city asked the property owners along Old Redwood Highway for the front 8 feet of their property, without compensation, for Oren Thiessens’ “northern gateway project only to have Thiessen go bankrupt a couple of months later. Then there are the $94,000 bus shelters built about 15 years ago when $94,000 was more money. Then there is former city manager Marangella, the EST trainer. He wanted to parade the “city charter” around city council meetings. Of course, Cotati is not a charter city and has no charter. Then there is the “Mobile Command Unit” the Cotati cops were so proud of. It seems like Barney Fife is in charge. The place is a speed trap.
Nowadays there is the multi-million dollar plan to beautify the main streets. Cotati city officials are detached from reality.
Joseph —
Precisely what part of “simply leaving people alone to go about their business” does Cotati city government practice? They dictate that there can be no McDonalds, Burger King, or IHOP within the city limits, instead of letting you choose what to eat. They tell businesses what kind of plants can line their parking lots, and which cannot. They tell builders all new homes must be prepared for solar, whether the owner ever intends to install solar panels. They take Water Department payments from one resident and use it to help another put in a trendy drought-resistant lawn. Soon, they will take the simple choice of “paper or plastic?” away from you. Their fondest dream is to transform a 25 MPH downtown street into a 15 MPH clot.
I personally find having my personal freedoms eroded by mental dwarves to be extremely divisive, and you can read more of my thoughts in the next issue of The Cotati Independent. A copy may even be available at City Hall, if the PD has sufficiently shamed them into keeping it available.
In the fifties we had a great president who believed in the people to be prosperous if simply left alone to go about their business, he did everything in his power to not be divisive in his agenda. His name was Eisenhower, a great man who was also committed to not having an industrialized prison system. Both hot topics today, with this country at war and having a huge industrial prison complex.
This paper is divisive, and does little in any goal to unite the community.
Cotati does in fact have a balanced budget and one of the most respected law enforcement departments in the county.
Thus I think they must be doing something right.
It’s actually pretty good stuff and better journalism than we get to read in the Press Democrat. He needs to get his web page into a more readable format. Not everyone will have the patience to figure out how to download and read it properly.
Start your own web page debunking his if you can. I’ll read that too if you come up with something other than personal insults. Sadly, the critics never come up with anything other than name calling and ridicule. Pretty laughable efforts as usual.
Anyway, no one can steal the copies on the Internet.
Since most of what Barrich says confirms him the fool, my guess is that either he or one of his cronies are stealing his own papers to generate some publicity.