Scientology plan to shut road through its secretive ‘Int Base’ in California foiled again

 
Once again, the enterprising Erin Hodges Plumb of Hemet, California, was on the scene for a Scientology Watching adventure, and we have her report.

Erin is the former middle school special-needs teacher who burst on the scene recently when she managed to get invited to a mixer at Scientology’s secretive “Int Base” and brought with her a copy of Karen Pressley’s new book, Escaping Scientology. She even managed to get a photograph of the book being handled by Karen’s ex-husband, musician and Scientology lifer Peter Schless. After that escapade, Erin attended a seminar at Scientology’s Pasadena org with Marcy Sargeant, the woman who today runs the Mace-Kingsley Family Center in Clearwater, Florida, where Scientology processes are run on young children. And most recently, Erin visited Scientology’s Hollywood Celebrity Centre (2nd item) for a little fun with a security guard there.

Now, she’s back again, and she sent us an account of what she got up to last night. Here’s her dispatch…

Last week I saw a Facebook post by Scott Miller, mayor of the Riverside County town of San Jacinto, regarding a proposed road closure. That may sound like a pretty local issue, but actually it had major implications.

Scientology’s 500-acre international management compound “Int Base” — which includes its movie studios, Golden Era Productions — lies just north of San Jacinto’s city line, straddling Gilman Springs Road.

 
Miller’s post said the San Jacinto city council would be discussing the question of closing Gilman Springs Road to the public, something Scientology has wanted for a very long time. There were many responses to the post, with overwhelming opposition, and many asking why it was even a question at this point, since it has repeatedly been brought up over the years. In the post, you can see the mayor was a little alarmed by the response he’d already received, and was saying that he was only putting something on the agenda that another councilman had requested be put up for discussion…

 
The city councilman who had asked for the discussion was Andrew Kotyuk.

When I talked this over with Tony, he said he was really surprised that this was coming up now. Tony pointed out that Scientology leader David Miscavige has actually been de-emphasizing the importance of Int Base for several years, ever since it was revealed in 2009 that Miscavige had been operating the notorious prison for his own top executives there known as “The Hole.” Since then, Tony has heard that the population of Int Base has shrunk from about 800 at its height to maybe only 200 or 300 today. The studios at Golden Era have been upstaged by a fancy new set of studios in Hollywood, “Scientology Media Productions,” which opened last year. And most recently, Tony reported that some new defectors say that Miscavige hasn’t even been at Int Base in four years, even though it used to be his primary home.

And Tony points out that as Int Base declines, Miscavige is putting more importance on Clearwater, Florida and the Flag Land Base there. In fact, take a look at this flier that Mike Rinder put up at his site the other day…

 
If Clearwater is becoming more of a focus as Int Base is becoming such an afterthought, why would now be the time for a push to close down Gilman Springs Road, something Miscavige wanted badly for many years? I shared the mayor’s Facebook post and heard from many ex-Scientologists who were surprised that this was coming up again. Karen De La Carriere shared stories of Miscavige demanding the road closure and even punishing Sea Org members for failing to get it done.

I decided to attend the city council meeting to see what would be said in favor of closing the road. Before the meeting, Councilman Andrew Kotyuk put up his own Facebook post explaining that it was a safety concern as well as wanting to reroute traffic to local businesses to spend money. The post was later removed but a screenshot was posted.

 
The meeting was packed, which is not the usual case. Nine people had filled out cards, asking to speak on the subject (and I was one of them). I arrived early, and brought along some reading material for the wait.

 
We had to wait for some time for the council to get to the reason the room was full, as the road closure was number four on the agenda.

 
When the topic finally came up, the council asked what it was really discussing. At that point, Councilman Kotyuk backpedaled, denying that he wanted the road closed. He said it was simply a safety issue, and he suggested that the road might need to be widened.

Kotyuk, a conservative Republican, has announced that he’s going to challenge the state Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes for his District 42 seat, and one of the speakers last night claimed that Golden Era has donated to his campaign. I checked with the state elections website, but it’s too early to see records for the 2018 primary for Assembly campaigns to confirm that.

As other people spoke, however, Kotyuk did a lot of eye-rolling.

 
I was the first of the members of the public allowed to address the council. I spoke about David Miscavige wanting the road closed for more than 20 years. I shared the stories that Karen had told me of people jumping fences and racing out on motorcycles to escape the compound. I recommended they read The Unbreakable Miss Lovely and see the extent the cult takes to get its way.

Others spoke of the need for the road remaining open for various reasons. One major point is that it is a county road and not even in the city jurisdiction. Others expressed concern about mistreatment of people and suspected criminal activity at the base that should be investigated.

No one from the Church of Scientology spoke. I do not know if anyone in the room was a Scientologist.

Mayor Miller asked the council for a motion and vote to assure the people of San Jacinto that the road will never be closed. He then posted the result on Facebook.

 
So it turned out to be another victory for the people against the Church of Scientology.

 
— Erin Hodges Plumb

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on November 8, 2017 at 07:00

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