CityofSantaBarbaraSource: City of Santa Barbara
Interim City Administrator/City Clerk Rebecca Bjork today announced that five local campaigns for city offices have incurred fines because they filed late contribution reports. State law establishes fines of $10.00 for each day a statement is late.
Ms. Bjork commented, “The law is clear that contribution reports must be filed on time. The public is deprived of important information it needs to make informed decisions election decisions when reports are not filed on time.”
The campaigns are:
Nina Johnson for City Council: Fine: $6,570
Randy Rowse for Mayor: Fine $4,020
Mark Whitehurst for Mayor: Fine: $ 800
James Joyce for Mayor: Fine: $ 90
Deborah Schwartz for Mayor: Fine: $ 40
The insider political establishment obviously does not want Mayor Randy Rowse and District 6 NinaJohnson. Good enough reason right there to vote for both. Mayor Rowse and Councilwoman Johnson sound like the ones the local political machine fears most – not because they are bad; but because they are independent and experienced enough to know how the real games get played in this town. Don’t let these 11th hour dirty smears become our local political ethic. Consider the source, and what they have done to us before you buy into their win at any costs agenda. Also watch how this budding story morphs into more dirty campaign rhetoric, now that ballots are out. What a coincidence.
The Machine at work from the inside as usual. They really need Cathy and Megan, the newest rising star to win. This story is very suspicious.
Really, if she didn’t impose the fines required by State law, she would be breaking the law. There is a lot money being thrown on this election and one of the ways of deciding on a candidate is by following the money.
Even more reason not to vote for the status quo. What a lame press release City of SB!
Good for her. People running for office who ignore or are ignorant of the laws governing that office are a distinct liability, prone to all sorts of malfeasance.
City of SB you are doing a great job hopefully Randy is elected as the mayor and he carves all the city fat
Just re-read my comment and I have to correct something said with regards to rectifying or ignoring with regards to Randy Rowse. He chose to RECTIFY the situation.
My apologies to anyone that thought I was trying to villify Mr. Rowse, quite the contrary, I was giving him the respect he deserves. If any villification is launched toward him, it would be from the incumbent mayor. This tid bit was just a first shot.
Good lesson – belly up to any errors. You took your hits straight, Rowse and Johnson. Good role modeling. Too bad another major local political operative tried to sneak this issue into the media first using a disingenuous letter to the editor, professing fake concern, rather than let the official department deal with this upfront, which they did. That is the stench. And we don’t need any more of that in this town.
With this calculated posting yesterday by our politically motivated city administrator, the current city leadership is showing true colors – mean and vindictive and working to control the outcome of the election to keep the status quo.
I do not believe that any of the candidates our acting city administrator fined willfully filed late to conceal their fundraising efforts. Quite the opposite – I believe they were excited to share their financial support and success – all of which was posted and available well before the ballots were mailed and received by voters. Why would Nina Johnson want to conceal the fact that she surpassed her opponent in fundraising? Nina Johnson has also out performed Ms. Harmon in other ways too. Clearly Cathy Murrillo and Ms. Harmon are very worried and now resorting to using dirty politics.
This is a deplorable attempt by the City to thwart democracy and the people’s choice and powerfully illustrates what needs to be fixed. Our civic leaders and employees need to understand their role is to have the highest integrity and to respond to and to provide the very best service to the people – with an attitude of problem solving, humility, and kindness. Information about the election process including financial filings should be prominent and easy to find on the city website. Guess what? It is not. If you go onto the website to find where you can return your ballot it says “coming soon”.
Its clear we need new leadership and I can’t wait!
I see in a recent mailer that Rowse was endorsed by the Police and Fire Unions. I guess that means they will still get great pay, great benefits, and no accountability even if we elect the supposedly fiscally conservative ex-business owner as mayor?
Transparency is a good thing, it exposes wrongs and from there, it comes down to the wrongdoers to either rectify or ignore their actions, which Randy Rowse did.
Contribution oversights are nothing new and as long as such matters are addressed and fixed, that should be a bigger part of the story.
But let’s cut to the reality of the matter. That entity which we all refer to as “The Machine” isn’t done yet. Expect more dirty political tricks in the days to come.
Mayor Murillo and her cronies are running for cover and in their deflection strategy, they will find other seemingly “unethical” practices as ploys against the threat they face from worthy challengers.
Mayor Murillo patted herself on the back recently in a public forum and that’s kind of sad. Usually it’s actions that speak for a candidate and if there were any worthwhile actions on her part, as Mayor of the City of Santa Barbara, they would’ve spoken for themselves and results from said actions would’ve been known. Instead, a self-grandizing appearance was all she had to offer.
While I don’t live in the City of Santa Barbara, my home is just to to west and what the City of Santa Barbara decides affects us too, for better or worse.
Mayor Murillo’s servitude of ineffectiveness has been a trainwreck we’ve been forced to not only watch, but endure as a community. Time to put a stop to it and move in a direction that is truly forward, not left or right.
Kudos to the candidates that accepted the fines and made the necessary amends. Now maybe we can focus on the REAL issues the City of Santa Barbara is facing.