Clover Valley War?


Politics Gets Dirty in Rocklin


January 17, 2008 (revised January 19, 2008)

SINCE THE TIME OF THIS ARTICLE, BASED ON MY EXPERIENCE IN DEALING WITH THE ROCKLIN CITY COUNCIL AND HEARING BOTH SIDES OF THIS ISSUE AD NAUSEAM, I HAVE DECIDED IT IS TIME FOR A NEW CITY COUNCIL AND TO ADD A "NO ON H" SIGN TO MY FRONT YARD. THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS A VERY SOFTBALL REASONING FOR THAT INEVITABLE DECISION. THE PREPOSTEROUS IDEA THAT OUR CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS, ROCKLIN SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS, THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (WHICH GETS VIRTUALLY FREE RENT FROM THE CITY BECAUSE OF THE CITY COUNCIL'S GIFT TO THEM) THE FIRE AND POLICE ASSOCIATIONS (WHICH REPRESENT NEITHER THE PEOPLE OF ROCKLIN, THE BUSINESSES IN ROCKLIN, NOR THEIR FIREFIGHTERS AND POLICE OFFICERS) SHOULD LEND THEIR NAMES TO A PARTISAN CAMPAIGN, IS OUTRAGEOUS AND SHOULD BE CAUSE FOR ROCKLIN VOTERS TO ELECT A NON-PARTISAN CITY COUNCIL AS THE ELECTED POSITIONS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE. THE FACT THEY USED THEIR OFFICE TO ENDORSE SUCH TWISTED LANGUAGE AS THAT USED BY THE "YES ON H" CROWD, CAUSES ME TO BE ASHAMED OF MY CITY COUNCIL.

WHEREAS I AM USUALLY IN FAVOR OF PROTECTING OUR PROPERTY RIGHTS, I AM EQUALLY AGAINST THE PURCHASE OF MY CITY COUNCIL BY PRIVATE ENTERPRISE VIA CAMPAIGN DONATIONS OR ANY OTHER METHOD. IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THIS IS A FREE COUNTRY, THEREFORE, I'VE GIVEN THE "YES ON H" CROWD THIS LINK SO YOU CAN ACCESS THEIR SIDE OF THE STORY. SADLY, ALL THE NAMES OF OUR COMMUNITY LEADERS ENDORSING ANY PARTISAN ISSUE ARE PERMANENTLY STAINED, AND IN MY OPINION, SHOULD STEP DOWN FROM THEIR NON-PARTISAN POSITIONS.

SHOULD "MEASURE H" BE SOUNDLY DEFEATED, I WOULD HOPE THIS WOULD BE A LESSON TO DEVELOPERS THAT MIGHT TRY TO BUY MY CITY COUNCIL OR TO ROCKLIN CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS ADMINISTERING OUR CITY UNDER THE GUISE OF "NON-PARTISANSHIP." WERE VOTERS RESPONSIBLE ENOUGH TO LOOK AT THE CITY COUNCIL'S RECORDS ONLINE OR TO GO TO THE CITY HALL TO LOOK UP THEIR CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS, I THINK WE WOULD GET A 100% BETTER CITY WITHIN THE NEXT 8 YEARS. AS HONEST AND DISCIPLINED AS ROCKLIN CITIZENS ARE, SO WILL GO THEIR GOVERNMENT. WE MUST ALL LEARN TO STAND TALLER, ESPECIALLY THOSE WHOSE JOB IT IS "TO SERVE THE PEOPLE." - Michael Patrick Murphy, 1/30/08

I just received an email from the "YES on Measure H" folks. It was a pretty slick job quoting our Rocklin City Council members' denunciation of the "extremists" that vandalized the "YES" folks signs. Not knowing who committed the crime, this would be an assumption on the Council's part, unless they were misquoted by the "YES" folks in the email. The email strongly suggests that our City Council is on their side. The Council should be non-partisan and "in a perfect world" they should be working for "we the people." I smell a rat! Do you?

With millions of dollars hanging on the proposition necessitated by the oppositions successful referendum, I propose that it is also possible that the destruction was a set up to smear the opposition. I further propose that the wording quoted by the "YES" email is designed to further smear the opposition. Though I personally am not supporting either group, I understand how the "YES" folks have already been playing a desperate game warranting a thorough investigation by the Rocklin Police Department who's chief lives at the pleasure of our developer owned City Council. My what a tangled web we weave! If the true vandals are not discovered, I would start looking at the Rocklin Police Department, which doesn't seem to be able to solve a crime if their lives depended on it. I am hearing repeated stories from Rocklin's residents about Rocklin PDs' apparent ambivalence to vandalism and theft. Having some experience with this department, I have to wonder what the Rocklin Police Department has done these past few years? Let's find the perps so we know who's doing what on this Measure H campaign. Those committing these crimes must be brought to justice and proponents on both sides need to respect the property and personal rights of each other. Knowing the folks involved in the "NO" on Measure H" hierarchy, I am fairly certain they were not directly or indirectly involved in the vandalism. In an added note, I am tired of the more obvious attempts of the "YES" group to deceive Rocklin's voters with their "less traffic" and "more open space" bylines. Rocklin is in deep trouble when it votes without thoroughly hearing the TRUTH from both sides. In this instance, the "YES" folks are obviously taking advantage of the ignorance of the average uninformed Rocklin voter. All of us should read our ballots very carefully and remember that this is NOT a party-partisan issue despite the direction our partisan City Council appears to be headed in. When I read the January 17 Placer Herald opinion of Brett Storey, et al, I was in shock. The article said, "You might think voting no on Measure H will keep the valley as it is. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Voting no gives the landowners the legal right to build twice the number of houses and provide five times less open space." I think that statement is untrue.

Were it at all true, the developers would also be encouraging everyone to "Vote NO on Measure H." They would obviously make more money. I am outraged that our elected Mayor, Bart Paduveris represented as the President of the Rocklin Police Officers Association and Wendy Lang, an elected non-partisan official representing the Rocklin Unified School Board have become such big prostitutes for the developers. This is non of their associations business. I am disgusted with the false and misleading information they have been doling out to their constituents and hope that the sheeple of Rocklin will oust these so-called non-partisan politicians ASAP. There are more legitimate angles for the developers. Unfortunately, they have chosen the low road and it is a very, very, very low road indeed.

P.S. The City Council's job is NOT to promote Rocklin's businesses or developers with our tax dollars. In doing so, they apparently want to apply decisions favorable to larger businesses and not favorable to smaller ones. This is an outrage and misuse of public funds. "We the people" have been enablers to this trend, which started when folks decided to call Rocklin a "city." The title "city" implies a future like that of Los Angeles or San Francisco, where political corruption runs rampant and where developers run over current residents in their quest to see how much cement they can get on a square inch of land. This trend is also enabled by politicians that take campaign funds from developers and then make it easy for them to put in the cement. Locally, this means the overriding of public concerns as we see denser and denser projects and taller and taller buildings. Despite, the council's macro-management of development, I feel that Rocklin is poorly planned and is a key reason that Rocklin is rated #1 in the greater Sacramento Area by developers. You might say that Rocklin is "easy pick-ins." The cure lies in our voting for candidates that don't take the money from any business or organization and limit themselves to small donations from individuals that live in Rocklin. When pigs fly, you say? I say, "That's up to you!"

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