Dear Hal et al-
Here are my comments to a favorite blog, GlendaleFamilyJewels.blogspot.com.
Barry Allen Silverman has threatened me via voice-mail to publicize these
comments. PLEASE
Please also note my comments vis
a vis former Council Member Bremberg.
We were not political allies, she never supported me politically, and I never
appreciated her "ginger snaps" as some call them. This term is simply
a euphemism for extremely hurtful speech. It's easy to be controversial. It's
much harder to actually and faithfully represent a whole city.
My comments to the Family Jewels Site are as follows:
Let me begin by stating that I enjoy this site, and I hope I don't burst any
bubbles or break any hearts by admitting that I have introduced some of my
colleagues on the council to this blogspot as well. I
have not responded to this controversy publicly, until now, because I wanted to
have all the facts before doing so.
So, here's the story. Barry Allen Silverman (he now goes by Barry Allen after
leaving his Orange County past behind, or so I am told) presented himself
before the City Council last Tuesday and made a play to inject race and ethnic
politics into the smoking ban issue and thereby assist his "major
squeeze" on council (draw your own conclusions).
He did this by reading into the record an article in the
Naturally, my interest was piqued since I knew that I had never uttered the
words Mr. Allen attributed to me via the PW. Further, anyone who knows my
background, or that of my family in this city, knows that this type of language
is completely foreign to me. I hate to disappoint the phony writers who
responded claiming that they have heard me say these types of things before or
those who cheer the idea that I might have. In fact, I am no Ginger Bremberg, and would never want to be. That sort of
"on-the-edge-of race-baiting-dirt-farm-ignorance" is not my style or
my stock in trade. Ginger was no friend of mine or my family's, nor was I ever
her political ally.
But back to our story. When Barry Allen Silverman
handed over the paper from which he had quoted, it became quite clear that the
quotes were Council Member Weaver's. They referred to Mayor Drayman's father
dying when he was 18 years of age, etc. My father passed away 5 years ago. Dave
remained silent throughout Barry Silverman's (alias Barry Allen) accusations. I
decided to give Dave time to "fess-up" on his own.
When he did not, I spoke up with the fact that I had never given an interview
with PW. Dave then admitted that he had. You can view this for yourselves on
the city Website at www.ci.glendale.ca.us
on the GTV 6 link and accessing the video archive of this meeting.
I proceeded to eviscerate Barry Allen Silverman for his intentional
misdirection, since Barry knew full well these were Dave's quotes and not mine,
as did everyone on the dais. Barry contacts me several times each week to
verify facts and try out his latest scheme or conspiracy theory on me. So, why no call on this one? Well, the answer is that ol' Barry is still smarting from the spanking the public
gave him at the previous council meeting which he attributes to me.
Anyway, the next morning bright and early, I contacted the publisher of the
That afternoon, I received a call from the publisher, Mr. Guynn,
confirming that the PW had, in his words, "screwed up". They are publishing
a letter on page A4 of their upcoming edition apologizing for attributing Dave
Weaver's comments to me when I had, in fact, never spoken with them or their
reporter. I have also invited the publisher to our council meeting so that he
can take his "sack cloth and ashes" routine on the road to
Naturally, Mr. Silverman (alias Barry Allen), left me a voice-mail telling me
that he had contacted the PW and had straightened it all out, so "let's
let bygones be bygones." With so many individuals out there with so many
stories about Mr. Allen's past (and present), I can imagine why he now wants me
to be less like Ginger Bremberg and more
like...well...John Drayman.
Silverman (alias Barry Allen) is small potatoes. What I want to make clear is
that it takes zero [backbone] to simply make outrageous comments, accusations
and half truths which injure people.
The people who cooked this one up and attempted to foist it on the public are
not squirrels with [backbone,] as seen on the cover photo of this blog. The scam which was attempted here was brought forth
by a different rodent, an impotent weasel and one council member who likely
won't survive the next election.
Please keep up the good, and extremely entertaining, work you are doing here!
Sending you my best regards,
John Drayman
Mayor of