By Anne Caenn Village Laguna President

The Feb . 17 edition of the Independent is not the first time Michael Ray has harshly and unfairly attacked Village Laguna , but it demonstrates an escalation in his abusive accusations . Village Laguna is a 50-year-old community organization dedicated to the preservation of the village character of Laguna Beach . We work in the public interest . Our board members are volunteers who are dedicated to keeping Laguna Beach the lovely , exceptional place that residents and visitors love . It is time for the Laguna Beach

Independent to stop publishing these attacks . It is time for positive messages . Instead of lobbing accusations and falsehoods , let ’ s work together to solve problems and make our community even better .

Ray ’ s column has damaged Village Laguna ’ s reputation by accusing the organization of causing the home of Laguna Beach city manager Shohreh Dupuis to be defaced . Ray claims , falsely , that Village Laguna made public comments at a Feb . 7 city council meeting about a traffic citation issued to Ms . Dupuis and that those comments led to the defacing of her home . A cursory investigation would have shown that Village Laguna never made comments at the February city council meeting , public or otherwise , about Ms . Dupuis ’ s traffic citation .

At the Feb . 7 meeting , three Laguna Beach residents commented on the city ’ s handling of the traffic citation issued to Ms . Dupuis . While Village Laguna fully supports the rights of Laguna Beach residents to address the city council on matters of public concern , the persons addressing the council at the Feb . 7 city council meeting regarding her traffic citation did not do so on Village Laguna ’ s behalf . The

speakers are not members of Village Laguna . No one authorized by , or representing Village Laguna , spoke at the city council meeting about Ms . Dupuis ’ traffic citation . Despite this , Mr . Ray stated in his column that the statements made at the council meeting were “ VL [ Village Laguna ] verbal attacks from Feb . 7 .” He also identified two of the speakers as Village Laguna members , which is false .

Mr . Ray then used his false statements to damage Village Laguna ’ s reputation by explicitly linking the statements and the attack on Ms . Dupuis ’ home . Not only is there no proven link between the comments regarding Ms . Dupuis ’ traffic citation and the vandalism at her home , but it ’ s also entirely false to attribute the statements at the meeting to Village Laguna .

The true story is Village Laguna president Anne Caenn responded to the attack on Ms . Dupuis ’ home by mailing a personal , supportive note to her on Feb . 11 . Village Laguna published the following statement in a message to members on Feb . 16 .

“ The heart of our organization is preserving and creating the community that we want to live in . Village Laguna

deplores the defacing of the home of our city manager Shohreh Dupuis . Hate and violence have no place in our community , and we sympathize with her in this trying moment .”

Our members , and residents not members of Village Laguna , have expressed their concern about Ray ’ s attacks , even terming them defamatory .

The Independent should not accept columns without fact-checking . In the interest of operating a publication with high journalistic standards should refuse to accept columns that are , at best , repetitive and often attempt to generate hateful attitudes about others in the community . If you want to protect and enhance the village character of Laguna Beach , Village Laguna invites you to join us at VillageLaguna . org and attend our online meeting on Feb . 27 at 7 p . m . We are featuring the newest council members at our meetings . Last month , we heard from Alex Rounaghi . At this meeting , our guest will be Mark Orgill . Even if you don ’ t attend our meetings , we invite you to join us in working for positive and productive community discourse .

Anne is president of Village Laguna , Inc .

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