By Charles M. Kelly
- I am thankful to have enjoyed the privilege of covering Seal Beach since 2005.
- I’m thankful for The Sun and Seal Beach.
- I am thankful for the not-quite 20 years I spent working on Main Street. I spent some of the best hours of my life there. (I can always spend my Saturdays on Main.)
- I’m thankful for every “thank you” and “we appreciate your work” we’ve received from the readers of the Seal Beach Sun for the last two years.
- I am thankful for everyone to came by the old office in recent weeks to say goodbye and thank us for our work.
- I am thankful for my place near the Mary Wilson Library.
- According to my records, in March 2024, I had 53 stories in various stages of development. In November 2024, I’ve hacked that down to 15. I’m thankful for the dry erase boards that helped make my workload more manageable.
- I am thankful that I wrote 19 stories for the March 28 Sun and published 18 of them. You seldom get a achieve to beat a lifetime personal best.
- I’m thankful for every member of the public who attends council meetings. It’s not possible for one person to know everything. (By the way, if you don’t like what the government is doing then please come to council meetings and tell them so. Council members and staff cannot read minds.)
- I am thankful that I wrote about the time lag between annual evaluations of the city manager. I learned about it because someone brought the issue ob up at a council meeting. Seal Beach residents are my best leads about what our city government is doing.
- I am thankful that I wrote a story about the city’s hiring of consulting business Tripepi Smith. (See “City manager hires Tripepi Smith for ‘communications support,’” at sunnews.org.) I got the name of the company from one source and a copy of the contract from another source. I was able to put the story together from there. I told City Hall I would file my story Jan. 8. The city answered my questions on Jan. 8 (after I sent my questions a second time), and then the city and Tripepi Smith issued a press release announcing their partnership on Jan. 9. My story ran on Jan. 11.
- I am thankful that I wrote a six-part series on the Strategic Planning meeting. I wish it could have been a nine-part series, but getting six stories out of one meeting is not bad.
- I am thankful that most city meetings are video-recorded. Audio recordings are much more difficult to work with.
- I am thankful that I got the initial Main Street outdoor uses program story without a press release.
- I’m thankful that I wrote the story “No city web traffic data available” (see sunnews.org). I wasn’t looking for that story. I stumbled across it while researching the Circuit shuttle program.
- I’m thankful that I wrote about the Circuit shuttle program. Both supporters and opponents asked me to write about it. It was fun to report and write. Will it make a difference? I’ve no idea. I really should ride the entire route before the pilot program ends.
- I’m thankful for my friend and co-worker David N. Young, editor of the Event-News Enterprise and past Sun editor. He was invited to tour the CSULB Shark Lab, but gave me the story because he knew I find sharks fascinating.
Charles M. Kelly is associate editor of the Sun. His opinions are his alone.
