Our Blue Mountain Community also known as Grand Terrace is truly “A Tale of Two Cities.” This became very evident in the recent power outage we faced. One part of our community had electricity, and another did not. What also became very evident was that one Facebook page that has the city’s only zip code and assumed by some to be our City’s official Facebook page, but it is not.
It was made noticeably clear from the administrators of that page that it’s a private page and they can add or remove anyone they want, as it’s a “private page.” The problem with this “Private Page” is that our Mayor and other long-time residents aren’t allowed to join that page and or have been removed or removed themselves when their posts were never approved or often denied.
We understand clearly now, as it’s been stated to several residents who inquired that our City’s Zip Code Facebook page is a PRIVATE PAGE. Here’s the problem, we had a dire emergency with many homes without power for a couple of days. People on this “Private Page” were uninformed about everything the Mayor and others were doing, from working with SCE, to helping everyone in need.
A prime example was our senior resident center that was without power, the Mayor and others stepped in to get a generator there, our Woman’ Club brought in pizza for all the residents, and more was being done throughout the affected area.
Unfortunately, you wouldn’t have known that on 92313, because our Mayor and others cannot post there, especially if they mention his name. This isn’t new and has gone on for a while. That’s when another resident of Grand Terrace along with a few others created what was originally named 92313 Community Uncensored. They named it uncensored because our Mayor’s posts on 92313 were always denied or removed.
Our Mayor Bill Hussey found out that he’d been “censored” shortly after becoming our Mayor, and later his wife was removed from that page. No one on 92313 can hear from Mayor Bill Hussey directly, to know what’s going on in our community. The simple mentioning of his name on any posts made on the “Private 92313 page” won’t be approved and will be denied.
Some residents checked into what we were saying during our energy emergency and confirmed that our Mayor’s name cannot be mentioned. That is unless you are slamming and criticizing him for not doing anything or making derogatory comments about the time he’s spending with his family.
This truly is a “Tale of Two Cities,” as one will readily post informational things our Mayor puts up, including essential information during emergencies. He even posts some jokes to add some levity to life.
Many of our long-time residents feel what’s going on is wrong, as they aren’t even allowed to join 92313 after being recommended by other long-term residents. Our Mayor should be allowed to update everyone on any of the pages, private or public, regarding our community. After more residents found out about our Mayor’s inability to post on 92313, we saw a spike in member request for 92313 Community, which is also a “PRIVATE PAGE”. And of course, the City of Grand Terrace does have its own “Official Facebook page for the City of Grand Terrace, it’s https://www.facebook.com/CityofGrandTerrace maybe the 92313 page should have a disclaimer that it’s NOT the official city’s page but private, or change the name to something like 92313 Private Page.