As you might expect during the election season, a lot of money is being spent on election materials arriving in your mailbox.
Some of these contain a grain of truth, some are forthright and a few are outright lies.
Personally, I like most of our sitting council members. I like the courage they have exercised in reversing the damage done by the prior Gillmor majority.
During the “dark ages,” when Mayor Lisa Gillmor and her hand-picked council of cronies were running the city, there was little or no “business as usual.”
During this unbridled reign of ruin, Santa Clara went into debt as a multi-million surplus evaporated.
However, one group became the recipients of the City’s vaporized budget. The Santa Clara Police Officers Association became beneficiaries of selective increases.
There is no issue when it comes to paying our folks in blue and giving them competitive compensation. In return, residents expect safety, response and enforcement.
That said, Santa Clara police are not requested, required or respected for entering into the political arena.
But the Santa Clara POA has done just that with its PAC’s misinformation machine.
This is crossing the line.
The police union PAC recently put out a political mailer claiming the current council members running for re-election, “Did not sign the ethics pledge.”
It’s lying with the truth, an intentional statement to mislead voters. The pledge the police union PAC refers to is one drafted by the Gillmor machine’s ethicist-for-hire, Tom Shanks.
Shanks has no standing, nor very much respect, these days in Santa Clara. His “ethics” are partisan, subjective and only extend to opponents of the Gillmor machine.
Be it known that EVERY current council member running for re-election signed the City of Santa Clara’s ethics pledge.
That is the one and only Santa Clara ethics pledge. My neighbor could write his own “Santa Clara ethics pledge.” Does that mean candidates must sign his pledge, too?
You have to wonder why the Santa Clara Police would recruit a gun for hire bad apple like Shanks.
SCPD has a motto to “Serve and Protect.”
Now that their union PAC is spending dues on politics instead of supporting members, they are breeding mistrust and division in the community. They are flat out trying a full-court press to deceive you, the voters.
That begs the question: What else are they misleading us about?
If the representatives of our police officers don’t tell the truth, how can they be trusted to perform their duties for citizens, residents and you?
This is not just politics as usual. Misleading voters on the part of those assigned to serve and protect is an ethics violation that should be investigated by real authorities.
Previous Milestones:
Milestones – Milk Money – Opinion
Milestones – If it’s not Broken – Opinion
Milestones – Do You Remember? – Opinion
