 |
| (click to enlarge) |
Pledge: The trend in recent years of outside organizations trying to influence Sierra Madre politics is unacceptable. Therefore, in the interest of the independence of this town, my solemn commitment to fellow Sierra Madreans is that I will absolutely not solicit nor will I accept any support from political parties, outside political organizations, outside political interest groups, outside political consultants, labor unions, law firms, developers, etc. All of my campaign expenditures will be funded by individual donations or self-financed (link).
Unless I've read this wrong and Goss is actually talking about not accepting Lemon Pledge furniture polish, it at least appears that he is quite serious about keeping his act local and independent. And here Goss does state that he will not accept support from any outside organizations such as law firms and labor unions.
Yet if you look just above and to the left, you will find a screenshot taken from his full page ad in this weekend's Mountain Views News. Clearly you can see that he proudly lays claim to the endorsement of the United Teachers of Pasadena (link), which is very much a union.
And since they are not located in Sierra Madre, the UTP is also very much an outside interest group as well.
This lamentable instance of political campaign fibbing is also evident on the endorsements page of his campaign webpage (link). Again the United Teachers of Pasadena are clearly listed.
And if you need one more source, here it is again from an article in the Pasadena Star News (link):
Goss is endorsed by Mayor Nancy Walsh, Councilman John Harabedian, Chair Rob Stockly of the Library Board of Trustees, the United Teachers of Pasadena and many former Citizens of the Year ...
Here is another claim made by Professor Goss that smells just about as rank.
As a member of your City Council, I will be vigilant in fighting overdevelopment to maintain our small town’s character and independence.
If you read through Goss's endorsement list, you will find many of the leading figures in the fight to build the Downtown Specific Plan, perhaps the most crass and destructive development threat this city ever faced. People who also took $180,000 in outside money from BIA and CAR lobbyists in a failed attempt to defeat Measure V, the people's homegrown response to the menace this DSP scheme represented to their community birthright.
With longtime uncontrolled development advocates such as John Buchanan, Josh Moran and Glenn Lambdin on his list, Gene Goss can easily be suspected of being no friend to those who oppose overdevelopment in Sierra Madre. Despite all of his lip service there is not one single authentic slow growth advocate listed on Gene Goss's endorsement page.
Then, of course, there is also the inevitable pandering to the fears of low information voters. Here is Goss at his most disingenuous, taken from his website's "issues" page (link).
Public Safety: I believe in local control and am committed to maintaining our own police department and do not support contracting out to the Sheriff’s Department. Our police, fire and paramedics should be our top priority and should be properly supported.
The issue here is not the Sierra Madre Police Department. There is little political will in this community to cut them loose and bring in the Sheriffs. Rather this is a ready-made and dishonest strategy adopted by Goss in order to defend Measure UUT, the do-over ballot initiative cooked up to reverse Sierra Madre's 2012 vote to sunset some of the highest utility taxes in California. A clearly wise decision by the residents of this community, voted into effect in order to drag City Hall kicking and screaming to a level of fiscal sanity it has long lacked.
Goss instead has gone with the current municipal employee union strategy to confiscate as much money from the taxpayers here as possible. Money that will then be used to fund city hall pensions, benefit packages and some of the most outrageously expensive health care plans anywhere (link). Goss, himself a government employee who has dabbled in similar union efforts where he works in Long Beach, is obviously quite comfortable with all of this.
One more point. There are only 4 people running for 3 available City Council seats this year. Of the two candidates on the pro-tax and pro-overdevelopment tip, one was outed for posting lewd photos of himself on Facebook. The other is Gene Goss.
Goss will probably win a City Council seat, but it won't be because very many people actually want him there. He will get in because he kept his clothes on in front of the camera and his ideological running mate didn't.
Not the most illustrious way to win a political office.
http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com
