Donn Merriam: Tattler Takes Back School Board Endorsment

The Tattler Takes a Mulligan:

Donn Merriam's Skewed Worldview:
Loyalty to President Affeldt is What's Most Important 


Lack of Comity at School Board:
Instead of Apologies We Get Total Silence

Opinion

Donn Merriam
 A bit dickish and a
John Affeldt 'yes man'.
who supplanted...

Emeryville's right wing and the sycophants of the power elite in town have long called on the Tattler to take back what it has said and to that we've always responded; show us where we're wrong and the Tattler will post a retraction and an apology.  Well, consider this a retraction and an apology: we endorsed Donn Merriam for the Emery School Board in 2014 and we were wrong and we apologize.
Donn Merriam sucks on the School Board...we're the first to admit it.  He's served as a bump on a log and a 'yes man' to the current board president's dark and community disempowering vision since he got there.  Before the last election, we thought Donn would be a breath of fresh air, likely better than the guy he beat out, Miguel Dwin; the former yes man for then School Board President Josh Simon.  Now we can't qualify how he's been any better than Mr Dwin, indeed, he's shown to be actually worse in some regards.

In our defense, if you read the Tattler endorsement of Donn Merriam from October 2014, you'll note it was not our fondness for Mr Merriam as much as our realization of the need to get rid of Miguel Dwin that drove the endorsement.  Mr Merriam was a new face and we went with that; a low bar that we admitted at the time.  We now realize, some 13 months later, just how low we set the bar... too low.

...Miguel Dwin
a nice guy but ultimately just
a yes man for Josh Simon.

Donn Meriam on the Emery School Board has been a warm body taking up a seat until Board President John Affeldt needs a second to some wrong-headed policy...then the sleepy Donn Merriam springs into action.  He's part of the 'yes person' culture at the Emery School Board.  It's how the Center of 'Community' Life has been railroaded past dissenters; a strongman in charge on the Board with a bevy of yes people to support him.  We should have known better when we did our inadequate vetting of Donn Merriam last year.

Donn has delivered consistent and unwavering support to President Affeldt's program of shutting out residents as they have sought a forum on the closing of Anna Yates Elementary School just like Mr Dwinn provided for Mr Simon but Mr Merriam has gone a step further than Mr Dwin ever did by also buttressing a program to torpedo comity among colleagues on the Board (brought by Mr Affeldt).  In the unseemly Brown Act debacle still unfolding, Donn has happily joined President Affeldt in attacking fellow Board member Christian Patz after Mr Patz cried foul when he saw three Board members leaving a secret meeting in the Superintendent's office, a Brown Act violation.  Donn Merriam gushed sanctimonious outrage that Mr Patz said the meeting he witnessed was improper.  Later when President Affeldt and Superintendent Rubio admitted the meeting was illegal (under intense media pressure), and it was time for apologies to Mr Patz and the people of Emeryville,  Mr Merriam offered up a big serving of total silence.
We blew it when we endorsed you Donn Merriam and we join the rest of Emeryville in our waiting for the apologies.