Mark Twain once wrote, "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." Currently, there have been numerous rumors swirling around recent robocalls in the City of Ventura's Council race. Here at Ventura County Fact Check, we hope to help the truth put it's shoes on.
1. Robocall Misleading statement/question: “Did you know that in 2001 Councilman Andrews was investigated by the District Attorney for violations of the Ventura campaign finance law and paid the maximum penalty for those violations?”
The Truth: The District Attorney issued a report closing his investigation of the 2001 campaign finance allegations that concluded that there was no evidence that would support prosecution or a finding of intentional or deliberate wrong-doing in this case. The report is a matter of public record. While a settlement agreement was previously reached to close the City inquiry, it also established no finding of guilt and is not truthfully characterized as a penalty.
2. Robocall Misleading statement/question: “Did you know that Councilman Andrews has voted for more tax and fee increases than any other Council member?”
The Truth: This is simply false. Councilman Andrews is widely recognized as the strongest fiscal conservative on the Council and the public watchdog on expenditures. His voting record is open for anyone to see. Indeed he was the only Council member to vote against the disastrous 911 fee, and he led the successful effort to repeal it.
3. Robocall Misleading statement/question: “Critics say that Councilman Andrews places more emphasis on squirrels than on other important matters that come before the City.”
The Truth: Councilman Andrews initiated a major public health program to eliminate hundreds of rats infesting the Promenade area of our City beach and adversely affecting both tourism and the health of our residents, a program that some animal advocates criticized as preventing animal lovers from feeding the squirrels there.
4. Robocall Misleading statement/question: “Mr. Andrews says he supports public safety, but he has consistently voted against fair and equitable pay and benefits for police and fire personnel.”
The Truth: In recent years Councilman Andrews has voted against extraordinarily large compensation and benefit increases demanded by unions representing police and fire personnel. Ventura police and fire personnel are very well compensated. They also have amongst the best pension benefits in the area. These disproportionate wage and pension increases are unsustainable. The increases have substantially exceeded the pace of revenue growth. They have directly resulted in the need to cut other services like street maintenance and have resulted in the inability to properly fund our libraries. They have also prevented the City from offering its lowest paid employees better compensation, often unfairly asking them to settle for less than the increase in the cost of living. Councilman Andrews has courageously stood for fairness to all employees and fiscal prudence on behalf of the taxpayer.
5. Robocall Misleading statement/question: “Councilman Andrews led the effort to make it legal for people to sleep in cars in Ventura, promoting drug dealing.”
The Truth: Councilman Andrews supported a proposal to establish a pilot program called “Safe Sleep” sponsored by the Ventura Social Services Task Force, the City’s designated lead community group in implementing the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness adopted by the City in 2007. This program, based on a successful model used in other cities, would provide a place where homeless families living in their vehicles could legally park and sleep at night under supervision and in a controlled environment. There is absolutely no connection to drug dealing. In fact police monitoring and control would be facilitated.
6. Robocall Misleading statement/question: “Were you aware that Councilman Andrews wastes more taxpayers dollars traveling across country than any other Council member?”
The Truth: Councilman Andrews is the only member of the City Council who holds a seat on a prestigious and influential national policy committee. Effective service on that committee requires four trips each year. Councilman Andrews also is a member of the official delegation from Ventura County who make an annual trip to Washington to advocate for additional investment in the local economy, particularly by the Defense Department. The work of this delegation has brought on average an additional $4,000,0000 to $10,000,000 each year to the local economy and has prevented the closure of Naval Base Ventura County and the loss of its 17,000 jobs and two billion dollar annual contribution to the regional economy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment