More Bob Burnham DRAMA!

I'm having difficulty figuring out why Former City Attorney Bob Burnham would resign instead of just filing his Conflict of Interest forms.

But more interesting is his letter of resignation (which I cannot figure out how to post) which he says that he's resigning because of:

"...During the last two months, my work with the City on JWA (John Wayne Airport) issues has become a focus of these attacks. I am convinced that, if I remain involved in the effort , these attacks will create the same climate surrounding efforts to control JWA...blah, blah, blah..."

Hey Bob, out of all the things being brought up about you, your involvement with the John Wayne Airport sure isn't one of them. In fact, looking at Linda Orozco's letter, it's not even brought up.

All the claims that Bob Rush has made about him about the potential conflicts of interest have nothing to do with them.

Bob Burnham's letter is a pure diversionary tactic to take attention away from his involvement with the Mass Inundation of Sober Living/Rehab Homes in Newport Beach.

So much so that now the Airport Working Group has now picked up the Bob Burnham flag and is now running with it, sending out this email:

"On Oct 5, 2007, at 11:53 AM, Barbara Lichman wrote:

Guys, this is precisely the type of event we discussed at the Board meeting Weds. night. The departure of Bob Burnham is almost as bad as the departure of Allan Murphy.

He is the "watchdog" and "guide dog" for the City's airport effort. I have called and begged him to remain, literally "on bended knee"(I also asked him not to tell anyone I did that).
Tom Naughton is writing a letter to him, with copies to Homer and the Daily Pilot, on behalf of AWG also asking that he remain and saying what high regard we have for him.

On a more cynical note, however, we can exploit this type of event in our fund-raising letter.

We should revise it (I will try) to address the impermanence of our favored position and how much it depends on highly motivated and knowledgeable individuals with good professional relationships. We have already lost Gatzke. Losing Bob will be a nail in our eventual "coffin".
Anyway, we'll try to interdict his departure and then tell the public how precarious our position is without our support. Individual letters from you all would be nice too."

Are they trying to turn the Airport folks against the Sober Living/Rehab home folks?

Is that Bob Burnham's (and current City Attorney Robin Clausen's) plan behind the carefully crafted letter of resignation (which coincidentally was never even signed by Bob and was faxed and emailed from Robin's office strategically to AWG members)

So...in response of the AWG's plea to help keep Bob Burnham (and use it to help raise funds), the originator of these Conflict Interest Form requests, Bob Rush (enough Bob's for you?) wrote this:

"Letter to All Newport Residents:

Below (above) is a letter supporting Bob Burnham from some folks on the Airport Working Group (AWG) who are passionate about their cause and should understand that....Bob Burnham resigned for his own reasons......

I only requested that the City obtain his SEI Conflict of Interest Forms 700 for the last 3+ years Partial Year 2004, Full Years 2005 & 2006 which was required of Katherine Wolcott another attorney with the City Attorney's Office (who signed virtually the same type of employment contract with the City) and who has been required to file Conflict of Interest Forms for the same time period and has complied.....

The AWG will also benefit from Mr Burnham's filing of these Conflict of Interest Forms as the intent of this Conflict of Interest reporting is to guarantee transparency in government. I would hope that all residents will support all efforts to ensure transparency in local government.

Sincerely

Robert Rush
Resident

You can't make this stuff up.

Stay tuned...