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The Real Trish Kelley When county blogger Larry Gilbert described the recall incident about Commissioner Leslie Sykes with a post on OrangeJuiceBlog.com last week, the article drew quick feedback that Councilwoman Trish Kelley had directed Sykes’ performance. A reader commented, “Trish Kelley has two different sides. In public, she’s friendly and chatty. Privately, she’s cunning and manipulative. Her clueless followers take the heat, and she doesn’t get her hands dirty. Sykes is in his 80s and appears to have mental health problems. Kelley uses naive moms, old people and her church members who have no idea they’re jumping into the wood chipper.” Two weeks ago, Kelley began sending emails to persuade her followers not to support the recall of MacLean. Isn’t it interesting she asked moms of young children to overlook MacLean’s anger issues? One of MacLean’s neighbors told recall volunteers that MacLean had become angry with her children and chased them down the street while wielding a shovel. Kelley tries to defend MacLean’s behavior by claiming assault and battery charges against him at UCI are untrue. Here are the links to news stories from UCI’s campus newspaper and the Orange County Register: Assault and battery charges: http://www.newu.uci.edu/main/article?slug=former_asuci_director_charged55 MacLean hid his identity when a reporter asked him about the charges: Kelley often leans on community members who don’t follow politics. She attends every city function, school meeting and business mixer – every happening in town if she finds out about it. Some community members note her presence, mistakenly thinking she is either representative of them or she will represent them with her council votes. For example, Kelley presents herself as an advocate for schoolchildren. Throughout the Capo school district turmoil from 2002 to 2006, Kelley was an ardent fan of former CUSD administrators James Fleming and David Do-Me (Doomey). Fleming has been charged with felonies, and Do-Me headed the facilities department while such campuses as Newhart Middle School deteriorated. As a specific example of Kelley’s true nature, she attempted to get a family kicked off a school campus during the 2004 council campaign because they supported her opponent. CUSD officials got on a golf cart and chased the family around, threatening them with arrest while Kelley and her cohort, Bill Klimek, continued campaigning on school property. Kelley’s emails about MacLean cite him as a benevolent do-gooder. Residents who watched a recent council meeting saw MacLean launch a brutal verbal attack against a community volunteer who asked the city to support an antiques show. A UCI employee surfaced last week at a recall table – the second in 10 days – giving more information about MacLean’s stormy job history prior to his abrupt departure from UCI after the assault and battery charges. The incident with Sykes underlines the real Trish Kelley, who uses her followers and then throws them under the bus. After community activist Bo Klein paved the way for Kelley’s council candidacy in 2002, she publicly humiliated him by orchestrating his dismissal as a city planning commissioner. Klein had defied Kelley’s directives by supporting her archrival, former councilwoman Gail Reavis. When Sykes revealed on July 30 that he had been sent by someone from city hall to interfere in the recall, some people concluded that Kelley sent him. The presumption is likely but not necessarily correct. If City Manager Dennis Wilberg directed a female staff member to send Sykes into battle, then Wilberg can be charged with misappropriation of public resources. |
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