The recent revelations about Barry
Allen, the city’s main “watch dog”, have troubled many of his supporters. But,
what is more troubling are the enemies of Barry Allen
and his online publication, Vanguard.
Mr. Molano’s article in this week’s Vanguard spoke about
redemption of the main characters in the story Les Miserable and the main
character, Frank Ablagnale, in the movie Catch Me If
You Can. Is Barry Allen a 21st
century hero of Redemption in local politics?
I became acquainted with Barry Allen
about four years ago. I would ask him
questions about government and he was always there to help and give advice. There wasn’t much that Barry did not know
about the law, investigative reporting and politics in general. Barry was a moderate Democrat and I was a
moderate Republican. Barry would anger
me when we would talk politics on the national scene and I even remember
hanging up the phone on him a couple of times.
However, on the cities issues, we
could discuss pros and cons on different subjects. But, he was always a stickler for evidence
and documentation. He would say “Don’t
get your information from a newspaper article, do your own research and then
draw your own conclusions”. At times,
Barry would chastise me when I was wrong…. Which in the long
run, hopefully, makes me a better public speaker and writer.
One day I asked Barry why he was
trying to right the wrongs in government...Democrats or Republicans…he said
very simply… “I just had a calling for it”.
Barry is a more religious Jew than I… perhaps
his past troubles with the law made him more religious and he found redemption
by helping others who might have gone astray?
Last Tuesday night’s council meeting orchestrated vendettas
against Allen were worthy of academy award nominations for all the players. The goal of the players was to discredit Allen
and make their new heroes, council incumbents, look better for the April, 2013
election. After all, Allen had all the
evidence that might put their previous local hero, John Drayman, in prison
someday. In the past Allen provided the
evidence that landed Councilman Dave Weaver a $9,000 fine for campaign
violations by the California Fair Political Practice Commission. Additionally, Allen had recently been going
after Najarian and Freidman for their questionable business
interest. Barry has plenty of
enemies. But, the best acting came from
Councilman Ara Najarian,
whose dramatic acting performance was definitely worthy of the “Oscar” that
evening.
What troubles me now is it is rumored
that Mr. Najarian is looking for a judgeship…
Mike Mohill Glendale
818 838 5001
mjmohill@gmail.com