GETTING DUMBER… Squid is rather brilliant, as mollusks go, so Squid is sorry to hear fellow smartypants Max Perelman is off the Pacific Grove Planning Commission. Perelman was appointed last year by then-mayor Dan Cort, who had taken the double-degreeing, Chinese – and Japanese-speaking MIIS grad student under his wing as an intern.

Squid’s birdies say Perelman was a team player on the commission, bringing thoughtful insight to the gig and keeping his game face through meetings that often dragged into the night. But when Perelman’s reappointment – usually just a formality – came up in early February, Mayor-on-a-Coin-Toss Carmelita Garcia decided to kick him off the commission with nary a heads-up or thank-you.

Squid will look past the fact that Garcia and Cort didn’t seem to get along, and that Garcia seems bent on undoing just about everything Cort did as mayor. Squid will not let the dismissal of an international green builder bolster Squid’s suspicions that Garcia has a disdain for all things eco. But if P.G. isn’t already mistaken for a retirement community, Squid thinks it’s a dang shame Garcia chose to axe one of P.G.’s few civic volunteers under 35 – a dad to two baby girls, first-time homeowner and entrepreneur. No word on the deal from Garcia, who responds to media queries about as often as a coin lands tails up four times in a row.

DOWNGRADE PART DEUX… Squid is also nothing if not sensitive. But it is with even poutier lips than normal that Squid reports this latest dent in the armor of county journalism: Carmel Magazine Executive Editor Brett Wilbur was just downsized. This particularly tenderizes Squid’s soft heart because Wilbur was a longtime Weekly contributor, staff writer and associate editor before taking the reins at CM from fellow Weekly alum Ryan Masters, who assumed the position after then-editor Scott Brown was busted for lifting whole passages from the Sacramento Bee and slapping his byline on them.

Her coups here included an award-winning contribution to a series on Salinas’ Census Track 7 to unwrapping the intolerant wrath of Reverend William J. Martin of St. John’s Chapel in Monterey, so it pained Squid to see her trade that fare for commentary on resort destinations and carpet colors at Carmel. (Squid was always partial to taupe.) But she was good for the glossy.

Though Wilbur will continue to write freelance, Publisher Steve Snider will run the now-tiny editorial operation with in-house help from just his wife-photog-editorial layout chief Kelli Uldall and a graphic designer. Without Wilbur at the helm, Squid predicts the already-fluffy mag will grow fluffier than the Aquarium’s newly rescued otter pup.