Inside Victorville
Those darn ads
October 29th, 2008, 5:44 pm · 2 Comments · posted by bedwards
Ads have been a popular topic in Victorville as of late. What ad was sent by whom… Who paid for said ad… The true intent of those glossy mailers…
The back and forth jabs continue today, with Victorville’s attorney sending a letter to Frontier and Frontier’s attorney jotting off a response back, cc’ed to some local heavyweights including District Attorney Michael Ramos and Congressman Jerry Lewis. The city is demanding Frontier’s Jimmy Previti take credit for smear campaigns against Councilman Bob Hunter, while Frontier is demanding the city issue a retraction of their claims connecting the two in the Daily Press.
Before my story on this topic ran Sunday, I received “encouragement” from Frontier’s Shane Bouchard that it would be in both his and my “best interest” if it didn’t run, since his company spends $9,000 per month on advertising. Luckily for readers (though perhaps not for the Christmas bonuses of DP staff), I can honestly say that our newsroom doesn’t concern itself with what happens in our advertising department.
Meanwhile, another FPPC claim has been filed against the city for the mailers sent to registered voters over the last week or so touting the city’s crime programs. This time challenging candidate Gary Douglas has submitted a paid advertisement from Political Action Committee Progress Victorville alongside the city’s fliers with his complaint. The two do have much in common, both focusing on the incumbents’ platform of crime prevention and specifically bragging about the city’s gang injunction, Operation Desert Heat and the number of cops added to city streets. If Douglas and his attorney are successful, the city may be sued for misuse of city funds to campaign for incumbents.
In spite of this flood of “communication,” there’s sadly been a severe lack of a clear exchange of information. Dan Tate, backing the campaigns against Hunter, couldn’t recall the name of his consultant who advised him to target Hunter rather than all incumbents. In spite of a communication gap resulting in an extra $18,000 flier being mailed out (roughly $2,000 over the annual salary of a minimum wage worker, by the way) city spokeswoman Yvonne Hester couldn’t produce an invoice for the fliers.
For advertisements — designed to notice or inform the public, according to Webster — there’s a lot of nonpublic dealings and miscommunication going on. And once again the public is the victim, without having a clear picture of who’s endorsing who, where their tax dollars are going and whose head will roll for that $18,000 mistake.
Supt. Fired
Mr. Weaver is going to get over 200,000 grand to leave? And not to mention his other retirment he gets from the County. Seems kind of funny that the Mayor of Adelanto is upset, but hey his city was going to get a state of the art High School with the Victorville taxpayers footing the bill for the next 40 years. What we need around here is an NAARP (Natl. Asst, for the Advanment for the Rest of the people!
The VV City is complaining about the “smear campain against Counilman Bob Hunter? Funny, the City has forgotten about the false smear campain Caldwell and company ran against Jim Busby, which also caused him to lose the election. I guess it all depends on who is smearing, the city or an individual. Look who is calling the kettle black.