Editor:
What happened to the candor? Bob Allgeier touts himself as a former county commissioner when cautioning that voters should consider a candidate's possible conflicts of interest on critical votes once they're in office. I guess Bob feels it's not important to identify himself as a kingpin in the Sustainable Growth group or that each of the candidates whom he supports represent the largest special interest group in the county. If elected, one might get the opinion that SGC candidates would always cast unbiased votes. Don't count on it.
I truly believe that if elected, each of the six candidates running in the upcoming primary will support and defend the existing building permit allocation. That's their duty and to suggest that a candidate's affiliation with the development community would somehow dissuade him or her from promoting something different is pure political scare tactics. What voters should consider is a candidate's business experience, his or her previous involvement in the community, and their knowledge of county affairs along with a burning desire to move our county forward to economic recovery and prosperity.
Our newly elected commissioners will have tough issues to tackle. Remember, with growth management tools already implemented, development should not be the main issue. The big issues are a balanced budget, economic viability, and how we keep our water in Douglas County. We need leaders who best understand how our greatest natural resource (water) and our quality of life can be magnets in attracting high paying manufacturing and clean air businesses to the county. A person who already has a bias against residential growth is not such a person. What we need are individuals who have previously been involved in the Douglas County process and have an intimate knowledge of our master plan and development codes; not someone who will need on-the-job training. Greg Lynn has been working with our community development for most of his 28 years as a small builder in Carson Valley, and Mike Olson has served admirably on the planning commission for almost five years. These are the people we want and need; not some carpetbaggers backed by the largest special interest group in the county. Remember the words of Bob Allgeier, "Potential conflicts of interest should be a serious issue in your personal debate as to whom you might cast your ballot for in the upcoming primary election." Please consider previous experience and personal involvement in county issues when you select your candidate in the Aug. 12 primary. A vote for Greg Lynn and Mike Olson may be the most important thing you do this year.
Larry Walsh
Gardnerville Resident and former Douglas County Planning Commissioner
Editor:
As this election campaign comes to its climax, I'd like to sincerely thank all those who helped and supported me over the last few months. This is my first election bid, and I had no idea how much work is really involved. Bless you all.
During the course of waging a campaign like this, one's understanding of what is really going on in our community increases exponentially. Before I filed for this office I spent several months simply doing homework. I can assure you that the sheer volume of information that needs to be absorbed is simply staggering. And I already had 20 years of practice on projects stretching across a wide spectrum of the county government.
During the campaign a handful of key issues have percolated to the top.
First, the budget and solutions to what is widely perceived as a looming crisis. Very frustrating for a would-be commissioner, because the commission's discretionary authority is limited on budget matters. Largely, they find themselves in the position of having to make cuts in highly visible public services, like parks and the library. This ties directly to the next issue...
Personnel costs. I certainly don't have room here to expand on my ideas for a solution to this issue. Feel free to call me. This is far from an unsolvable problem. The county's operations are crying for improvement but they aren't nearly as broken as some claim.
Water. How do we preserve our water resource? Folks, you can believe me that this is going to be a real challenge. There are lots of sharks out there that want our water. The question is going to be do we have the grit and wits to hang onto it? Water, after all, makes our Valley what it is.
Last, but by no means least, is economic development and its evil twin, growth. Having acquired a much deeper understanding of why things are the way they are in this county, I've come to believe that we should take these tough times as an opportunity to position ourselves to bounce back hard when the general economy turns around, and turn around it will. So lets streamline our codes, hack away regulatory hurdles, trim some deadwood, and beat the bushes for some business.
I feel very strongly that the necessary precondition to deal with the above and other challenges is the rejection by the voters of the SGC no-growth philosophy and its slate of candidates. I'm frankly outraged at this blatant takeover attempt, and hopefully the electorate will see through the misinformation behind this attempted coup. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
When I came here 30 years ago we had our differences but we all knew that we had a special community in a special place. The divisiveness of the last few years stands in stark contrast to that experience. I don't know if the rifts can be healed. But they can certainly be worsened. Vote on Aug. 12.
Greg Lynn
Gardnerville
Editor:
Looking at the Republican county commissioner candidates' Web sites, one notices that three of the candidates (one in each race) have been willing to reveal the sources of their campaign financing, and that the other three have not.
Candidates Doug Johnson, Dave Nelson, and Stuart Posselt have clearly listed the contributors to their campaign. They have nothing to hide. Among their many other contributors, they have all received contributions from the Sustainable Growth Committee, which represents over 8,800 voters who supported their initiative. SGC is a broad-based, grass-roots citizen organization, which supports candidates who most closely share their philosophy.
The other candidates, Greg Lynn, Mike Olson and Blaine Spires have been unwilling to show the public who is supporting their campaign. Is that because so much of their money is coming from pro-development groups, like the so-called Smart Growth Coalition, Park Cattle Co. and others? Why are they trying to hide that? If that's where their money is coming from, they should be willing to admit it. Is it because the development community is the ultimate special interest group, who too often put profit and self-interest above the public good?
The public has a right to know where each candidate receives his financing. Candidates should be transparent about this, unless they have something to hide. I urge the public to vote for Johnson, Nelson and Posselt, who have all revealed the sources of their funding, and who all clearly put the needs of the community first.
Jeff Lucinian
Minden
Editor:
In the candidate debate at CVIC on July 16, Stuart Posselt asked his audience to "follow the money." For the Sustainable Growth Committee, it is dogma that money buys developers influence over the commissioners. We have often heard them tell us that other candidates are bought and paid for by the development community.
Now, I listened toall of those candidates. Not one was in favor of open growth. Only one (George Thiel) is opposed to the growth ordinance that SGC helped to author, and even he is supportive of controlled growth, only disputing the mechanism. One of the candidates participated in the process, and one, Greg Lynn, (interestingly not supported by SGC) was one of the co-authors.
For a group with the stated agenda of controlling growth in Douglas County, this would seem to be mission accomplished. Instead, SGC has poured money into the campaigns of three candidates - by my count about $17,250 for Dave Nelson from SGC and its board members, $5,000 for Stuart Posselt, and I assume a minimum of $5,000 for Doug Johnson. The committee is the only major contributor to the Nelson and Posselt campaigns.
In addition to that, I understand from friends in the Johnson Lane area that door hangers have appeared on their doors and mailers in their mailboxes. I presume that more ads are coming and more mailers.
I am only guessing, but I would be surprised if they have not already spent more than about $35,000 in total. Perhaps I am still a cheap political date, but $35,000 buys a lot of influence by my standards, and by SGC's own perception of the political rules should be buying them a lot of influence. This raises the logical question "for what?" What is the point of spending that much money on buying political influence when your objective has already been accomplished?
I hear from SGC that voting for their slate of candidates is crucial for their vision of the future of Douglas County. What is that vision? What is the agenda of a group that has already achieved its stated goal and now feels it needs to back these three candidates with four year terms also? Many of us came from California and saw first-hand what happens when a group achieves its objective and sticks around, moving to greater and greater extremes to try to stay relevant and alive. Before you vote for any SGC candidate, you should ask what all that money has bought.
Karl Meyer
Gardnerville
Editor:
Do you not find it rather strange that Mike Olson and Blaine Spires did not attend the latest candidate forum? I am wondering and maybe you are also wondering if maybe it is because they would have to disclose where their campaign money is coming from.
Do you think it is coming from the smart growth group?
Also Mike Olson is on the planning commissioner and I find it rather strange that the only signs posted on Park Cattle Co. fences along Buckeye is guess who Mike Olson. When this comes before the planning commission I can read between the lines and know exactly how he is going to vote.
Make sure when you go to the polls to vote that we get someone in there that will do what is the will of the people of Douglas County and not what the developers want.
Vote for Doug Johnson, Stuart Posselt and Dave Nelson.
B. Anderson
Gardnerville
Editor:
My name is Mike Hayes. I'm not running for anything, but my son-in-law Mr. Blaine Spires is. Mr. Spires is running for county commissioner in District 3 and he deserves your vote in the Aug. 12 primary.
I was on the planning commission and it took us about four years to write, revise and finally adopt and start to implement the master plan that everybody is wild about. In four years Mr. Spire's opponent adopted an ordinance and gave himself a 4-percent pay raise. Which is the greater body of work?
In four years, Mr. Spires received a college degree, was accepted to graduate school, and managed a tourism water sport concern at Lake Tahoe and substitute taught in Douglas County. Mr. Spires found an entry level home, got married and started his life over as a resident. In four years his opponent resigned the chairmanship of the county commission to run his re-election campaign. Now he's asking us to rehire him for $100,000 over four years plus benefits. I sure wouldn't rehire a quitter for $100,000 plus benefits.
I was around when SGC was SGI and the 280 number they came up with was derived at by taking one new home a day for five days a week and multiplying that by 52 weeks which gives you 260 but since that is evenly devisable by 52 they threw in 20 more homes so you couldn't figure this out. It is an arbitrary number; it has nothing to do with our water. The coalition has bought a platform of candidates. Mr. Spires opponent is one of them.
Mr. Spires realizes that this is a critical time in our county's history. The current micro-managing and over regulating is going to drive the agriculture community to sell their water to the highest bidder, keep the land and go ranch in a more agriculture-friendly environment, similar to the business-friendly environment that all the candidates say they want to offer to new businesses. If the current incumbent and SGC can't offer an agriculture-friendly environment, how can they "keep our rural character?" They can't mandate that Ag stay but I'm sure they will try to. The ranchers are independent freedom loving people who managed to squeak by for 150 years without the current micro management and over regulation that SGC and Mr. Spires opponent represents.
How do we encourage economic development? Stop SGC. How do we keep our water? Stop SGC. How do we avoid law suits? Stop SGC. How do we keep our rural character? Stop SGC and vote for Mr. Blaine Spires a local-born and raised candidate who really cares about the good of his home county. Mr. Spires won't quit on you his opponent did.
Mike Hayes
Gardnerville
Editor:
On the first page of the introduction to our 1996 master plan, it states, "the theme 'keep our rural character' was heard many times in many different ways from residents." Today, most residents would still agree that this rural character is an important part of what makes Douglas County special, and something that needs to be preserved.
At last month's planning commission meeting, however, a proposal was heard to increase the maximum density in Douglas County from 12 residential units per acre to 25 units per acre. That would not be "rural" at all. It would be urban-type density.
According to The Record-Courier, the town boards of both Minden and Gardnerville opposed the proposal, and so did every planning commission member, except one - Mike Olson.
Why does he want urban densities in our rural county, when seemingly no one else does? Is he really at the beck and call of the development community, or does it just seem that way?
Mike's opponent in the August primary is Stuart Posselt. Stuart has spent his entire career in architecture, planning and finance. He has exactly the kind of background we need on the Board of Commissioners. Balancing the needs of growth while solving other community issues is of utmost importance to him.
Stuart Posselt believes that the future of Douglas County lies in economic diversity, not in an overdependence on house construction, box stores and casinos. His balanced approach would be of great benefit to our community. He deserves your vote.
Joyce Richardson
Gardnerville
Editor:
On July 25, L. L. Kerley wrote a succinct letter stating simply: "Obama reminds me of the senior class president who has a silver tongue and promises everything but has no real solution and is never heard from again. Guess who I'm voting for...McCain."
Apparently L. L. vastly prefers obfuscation and lies from McCain than eloquence and truth from Obama. It is people like L.L. who gave us George W. Bush, the worst president in our history and arguably the least articulate. Now L.L. seems to want a third GWB term through McCain.
J. L. Russell
Minden
Editor:
We live on Toler Lane in Gardnerville and would like to express our thanks to Herback General Engineering for the work they did on our street.
It was a huge job. They removed the asphalt and road base, and then replaced it. We were prepared for the work to take two months plus, but it was done in just a month. Yes, at times it was noisy, dusty and inconvenient, but the crew did a great job. We never saw any of the workers just standing around. They were constantly on the go even in the hot weather. When we needed to get in or out of our driveway they were very helpful getting it cleared for us. They were always polite and helpful.
In today's world we so often hear lots of complaints about so many things. We want to let Herback General Engineering and our community know how well they did, and how much we appreciate all of their work. Instead of it being a negative experience, it was a pleasant one, and done in a very timely manner.
We are grateful.
Debbie and Joel Cowan
Gardnerville
