Claremont mayor, Girl Scouts tangle over cookies

She noticed that Girl Scouts had set up a cookie sale on the street corner outside her office. Taylor approached a troop leader and asked if they had permission to set up.

The troop leader, Maia West, said she did.

West said Taylor told her she was disrupting Taylor's business. Taylor says she was simply worried that the girls could get hurt next to such a busy intersection.

The confrontation ended with Taylor calling the police and the half-dozen 8- to 10-year-old Girl Scouts packing up their cookies.

"We were just yelling 'Girl Scout cookies!' and the lady comes out and tells us to stop it because it's ruining her business and she can't work," said West's 10-year-old daughter, Amanda. "The lady told us to go, so we had to leave."

A few of the Scouts jeered at Taylor as they left. By the time the police arrived, everyone was gone.

Taylor says she didn't think twice about the encounter. She thought she was doing the right thing.

But within days, the confrontation between the mayor and the Girl Scouts was the talk of Claremont.

It would only get worse in the coming months, leading to accusations that the city was trying to punish the Girl Scouts with a new law and nasty name-calling directed at Taylor.

Taylor is still trying to put what she calls the "Girl Scout cookie saga" behind her.

City officials are hoping the community can move on.

"What happened with the Girl Scouts," said City Manager Jeffrey C. Parker, "got blown way out of proportion."



Picked up by blog

After packing up and leaving the sidewalk in front of the law office, West and her troop were steaming.

"It was such a negative experience," said West, who has lived just outside Claremont for nine years. "Here we are trying to empower these young girls to be entrepreneurs, and this woman shuts them down."

A few days later, West made what would be a fateful decision: She sent an e-mail chronicling the incident to the Claremont Insider, a popular blog in town known for gossipy items and sharp jabs at local politicians.

It was an anonymous editor of the Claremont Insider who named Taylor the "Claremont Cookie Monster" in a series of biting posts.

Readers responded with their own comments, the vast majority siding with the Girl Scouts.