By Gina Cuclis

This post illustrates how the digital age has altered the concept of "public behavior" by elected officials.

Voters don't like to be offended. They expect their local elected officials to behave professionally. Especially in small towns that have a sense of everyone knowing everyone else.

The Lesson from Cotati


Cotati is a small city in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco, with roughly 4,000 registered voters. Tuesday those voters ousted one of their city councilman, George Barich, who had been in office less than a year. Barich was elected in November 2008, winning by only five votes. More than 65 percent of those who cast ballots in the special election voted to recall him.

Barich's troubles began shortly after taking office. He used City letterhead without permission to send a personal letter to President Obama criticizing the economic stimulus package. He also used the City's logo, without authorization, on his personal web site. But what really outraged Cotati residents, was when Barich posted a photo of himself in black face with an Afro wig on his web site. (I searched the site. It appears to have been removed.)

Barich is a Republican who had been a long time council critic. Because registered Democrats outnumber Republicans roughly two to one in Cotati, Barich and his allies tried to claim the recall was an assault by liberals. Never mind that he failed to acknowledge how offensive his behavior was. Instead, he posted a black face photo of another individual on his web site.

The political parties did weigh in on the issue, with the Sonoma County Republican Party opposing the recall and the Sonoma County Democratic Party supporting it. However, I believe if the political parties had taken no positions, the election outcome would have been the same.

Do you live in Cotati? I would appreciate your comments.