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Health & Fitness

An article on Gérard Boulanger, reprised

Dan Romero and Bill Wilkins have chosen Gérard Boulanger as their running mate. This article tells you who Gérard is, and what he has done to Hercules.

An article on Gérard reprised; a copy of the slate’s flyer

 

Occasional Report No. 43

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Hello, again.    In early July, I wrote an article on Gérard Boulanger.    Since the subscriber list has grown significantly since then, I can assume that most of you have not yet seen it; since everything in it is still current and valid, and since Dan Romero and Bill Wilkins have chosen Gérard as their running mate, this would be a good time to reprise it.

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Why are Dan and Bill running with Gérard, a known, exposed, and documented liar who tried (successfully) to defraud the entire community in the last election?    They need his vote.    All four of the challenging candidates oppose them.    Myrna opposes them.    John Delgado?    Who knows?    But Romero and Wilkins need a reliable third vote, and in his council career thus far, Gérard has provided a reliable third vote for them.     It is a pact with the devil, but it would allow them to continue to control Hercules.

 

Since I sent out #42 (on the boulangerokins slate), I’ve received emails from two people who say that they did not receive the flyer in the (postal) mail; so, I’ve scanned and attached the side of the flyer from which I quoted.   [note:  those who are reading this in the Patch will not receive the scan of the flyer.    If you’d like to see it, email me, glennabraham@hotmail.com, and I’ll send it.   You can also join the 373 other subscribers on the distribution list:   if you do, you’ll get these articles the day they are written {The Patch prints them days or weeks later, or never.}, and you’ll get any attachments.    Everyone is welcome.]

 

This is the article:

 

Gérard Boulanger‏

From:

Glenn Abraham (glennabraham@hotmail.com)

Sent:

Fri 7/06/12 4:43 PM

To:

glennabraham, hotmail (glennabraham@hotmail.com)

Cc:

gérard 4/12 (gboulanger@ci.hercules.ca.us); myrna 4/12 (mdevera@ci.hercules.ca.us); steve duran,cityMgr 12/11 (sduran@ci.hercules.ca.us); dan,city 7/11 (danromero@ci.hercules.ca.us); bill wilkins 4/12 (wwilkins@ci.hercules.ca.us); john delgado 6/11 (jdelgado@ci.hercules.ca.us)

 

Note: Gérard, if you wish to write up a rebuttal to what I've written below, please email it to me, and I will send it on to all of the distribution list subscribers. I do, though, reserve the right to challenge anything you say.


#12 in a series of occasional reports

Gérard Boulanger

I've been mean to Gérard. I've called him Pinocchieaux and Le Weasel, I've regularly reminded Patch readers of his 2011 election scam. He has every reason to be angry with me, but I somehow cannot be angry with him. He's a kind and considerate and intelligent guy, and I can't help but like him.

He is, though, unfit for office.

There are definitely good things about Citizen Gérard Boulanger (not so good, regarding Councilman Gérard Boulanger). Gérard is a thoughtful and considerate person. I think he genuinely cares about other people. He also uses people in his schemes, but, for the moment, I'll concentrate on the good. Gérard lacks serious formal education beyond high school, and I'm unsure whether his high school was even an academic high school (lycée); nonetheless, he is quite intelligent and articulate. He is also sufficiently interested in politics that he has a good knowledge of, if nothing else, French politics in the 1980s, a subject I know well. In the 80s, I was living in Paris and, later, in a town on the eastern border of Paris; as it turns out, Gérard was living in a nearby town, and, given his knowledge of the politics of the time, it's possible that he was as deeply involved as I was. (He also, at various times in various conversations with me, claimed to be living in other places, places which he seemed to forget about later on.)

He's a very nice, and interesting, person; but, he should not be on the council now, and he most certainly should not be reelected in November.

He should not be on the council now because of the battery of lies, and the subsequent scheme, he deployed in the 2011 election campaign. Gérard lied about his background. It's not the background itself which is important since, if he had admitted to being a carpet cleaner (as he is) instead of lying about all the advanced degrees which he received (and which he invented), he would have been electable. (Patch 6/5/11, written after Gérard was caught: "[Gérard Boulanger] said that he does not have college degrees in thermodynamics or in mechanics of fluids, nor does he have a master's in business administration, degrees he claimed to have in biographical information he provided to Patch and the League of Women Voters.") More serious was his lie about his years of experience on a French municipal council: it was a complete fabrication, and a more germane fabrication than the fake graduate degrees, since past experience in municipal government would matter in an election for Hercules city council. The important point is: Gérard lied. He lied fluently and casually and carelessly. He lied automatically. He is an inveterate liar. He got into trouble with his lies because Don Kuehne's opposition research revealed the inconsistencies between Gérard's statements at one time to one audience, and at another time to another audience...much like his continually changing French addresses. As far as I can tell, his claims to coming from the classy Seizième Arrondissement de Paris, or perhaps it was the equally-chic Dix-septième, were meant as show-and-tell, as with his supposedly-genuine Patek Philippe watch. If he can prove that these addresses were valid, I'll gladly distribute his rebuttal, but they are not the main issue, just further evidence of the main issue; and, I'm pretty sure that the voters of Hercules are much less concerned than Gérard may be regarding the legitimacy of his claim to membership in the haute bourgeoisie. He is a poseur, but who cares? His friend (Alain Petit, see below) claimed that the Patek Philippe is a fake, but who cares? Gérard hurts no one with that, and it's actually kinda charming. The lies were gratuitous and unnecessary, but they dealt with issues which were perhaps important to Gérard, but surely irrelevant to Hercules.

When journalists began to close in on Gérard's fake biography, he kept on lying, and this time, to his friends and supporters. (I was deceived, but, gosh!, I just cannot get upset with this guy.) We were invited, one-by-one, to his house, so he could explain What Really Happened. He was good. He had me completely convinced. He lied. Later, after the résumé fraud was exposed in The Contra Costa Times and the Patch, Gérard descended from lying to scheming. He sent the following email to his closest supporters:

"Subject: Myrna called me....
.... this afternoon asking me to resign right after the election due to the controversy around my bio. She is obviously trying to manipulate me and a few others to push for McCoy as a nominated candidate once the council will have voted the appropriate resolution we don't have yet."

There was no plot by Myrna de Vera to capitalize on the scandal by promoting Sherry McCoy. A lie, but also a scheme, presumably intended to frighten his closest supporters into rallying around him. Gérard lies to his friends and supporters, and he tries to use them. I investigated the charge of a Myrna/Sherry plot, and found it to be untrue. I told Myrna about Gérard's scheme. Myrna, in the presence of John Delgado, confronted Gérard about the scheme, and he denied it. I forwarded Gérard's email to Myrna. His only response was that the email was private and shouldn't have been forwarded. That's true, but hardly an answer.

I began to criticize Gérard in the Patch. Alain Petit, a longtime (15 years) friend, business partner, and employer of Gérard, posted in the Patch to distance himself from Gérard. Alain then contacted me and initiated a substantial relationship in which he told me a very great deal more about what he perceived to be the awfulness of Gérard Boulanger. Alain wanted me to delay the revelation of what he had told me...he said he still needed Gérard for some carpetcleaning jobs, something about needing someone with insurance...kept delaying until I became impatient. For all I know, Alain Petit might just have had a personal grudge against Gérard. Perhaps he exagerrated the awfulness of Gérard. He always insisted that he not be quoted by name (though nobody but he could have provided the facts which he provided), and I'll never quote a source who won't stand by his information. So, I never printed Alain Petit's allegations. I did, though, believe them. It was based on this that I came to believe that the election lies were not a one-time event; I concluded that lying was part of Gérard's nature. (I believe in the truth of the specific facts which Alain Petit related to me, but I don't think they justified his degree of anger toward, and disgust with, Gérard. Of course, Alain knew Gérard about ten thousand times better than I did, but still, I think the anger was just likely something between these two. Everything I know about Gérard indicates a thoughtful, caring, intelligent, good person...who lies.)

Gérard lied to be elected to the Hercules city council, and Myrna did all she could to remove him, censure him, punish him. Gérard had neither the shame nor the decency to resign.

Because of his dishonesty, Gérard should not be reelected to a public office, a position of trust; but, there are other reasons to object to his reelection:

-Gérard shares Dan Romero's disdain for public opinion; he may, though, be showing signs of being conflicted on this, he may now be leaning toward listening. Gérard supported the town hall meeting of May, so, to that extent, he did endorse transparency, and he should be given credit for that;

-He is one of the hobbyist councilmen who do not prepare themselves for council sessions. It was Gérard who asked about the fence (and nothing else) for the proposed Parcel C apartment complex, while neglecting all of the issues which really do matter. In the end, he votes in the way in which Steve Duran wants him to vote, and I believe that what Steve Duran wants is very bad for Hercules;

-Gérard, at a council session, referred to the Central Hercules Plan, the plan which the community has striven to realize for twelve years, as a "fantasy". In fairness to Gérard, he later qualified that comment into oblivion. In fairness to us, that qualification came from Gérard; and,

-He believes that Hercules can survive through increased taxation. I'm not necessarily opposed to increases in parcel taxes, and perhaps utility user taxes, and even a possible further increase in the sales tax rate; I am, though, certain that the council will never convince enough voters to approve the kind of measures necessary to raise the kind of revenue which Hercules needs...and will need, every year unto eternity. Without a base of taxable retail, we will have, once Steve Duran gives away what remains of our land, no way to finance the operations of the city.

So, that's Gérard: a kind, intelligent, funny, caring person who lies. He worked hard for the recall, but I'm much less confident now about the virtue of that particular crusade. I believe, though, that in his support of the recall, Gérard meant well. He devotes insufficient time to his council job to be capable of rendering a decision which did not come from Steve Duran, and he supports the Duran line of sell cheap, sell fast, build apartments, forget about what the community wants. Gérard votes with Dan Romero, and since Dan Romero's plans, and his dumb reliance on Duran, are taking us to hell, Gérard's support is speeding up the descent. Gérard is perhaps no longer as disdainful of public opinion as he was earlier (though he sure keeps ignoring it in his votes). He's a nice guy, he's a fun guy. I really like him. He's a charming rogue. He's the adorable uncle whom we all really love, and chuckle about...Oh, that Oncle Gérry! What mischief has he gotten into this time?...but would never trust or take at face value...Yeah, I'll bet, sure he put it in the mail. Great guy. I really do not think he should be on the council now, I certainly do not think he should be reelected in November.

 

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