Vote NO on Kampe, No on Huitt, No on Lucius in Pacific Grove, and No on Potter

 David Dilworth’s Take-it or Leave-it

November 2012

 No. NO. NO !

There’s a lot of “Bad” up for a vote this season.

Perhaps the local area with the most to lose is Pacific Grove.

* Choose badly and it will cost the city tens of millions and cost You Personally thousands of dollars.
* Choose badly and our Pacific Grove forest-tree canopy is gone; we’ll lose most of what is left of our few remaining trees.
* Choose badly and Pacific Grove’ll get a gigantic hotel at Holmans and Fast Food – all over town.

Summary of Most Important Issues:

PG: Please Vote — NO on Kampe, No on Huitt and NO on Lucius.

and Yes on Dan Miller, Mary Norton, Robert Pacelli and PG Mayor Carmelita; and in Marina — Mayor Bruce Delgado.

PG: “F – NO !”     Measure F –No on the Holman-Strosity. Its a Bait-and-Switch trick. You gotta give the developer credit for Texas sized arrogance with his mailer. – A Texas Developer telling Pacific Grove residents what we need – when we didn’t even ask for his opinion. (All the while Holman’s controversial property owner Nader Agha is hiding behind the curtains, knowing full well that the whole house of cards collapses when his name is mentioned.)

Both PG Mayor candidates Garcia and Kampe appear to support the hotel but in very different ways. Garcia voted to put it on the ballot so that we residents can choose if we want it or not, Kampe supports the giant hotel so much he voted to keep it off the ballot – but Kampe tries to disguise his secret extra-credit efforts to help the developers Nader Agha and Texas’ Leddy.

Yes on State Prop 37 = Will Require GMO (Genetically Modified) Food to carry Labels The only organized opposition to labeling our food is Monsanto and the other GMO manufacturers.

Details (for “Yes” votes – keep reading to the end)

My goal with this article it to help you avoid the worst voting mistakes by explaining what candidates DO versus what they Say.

Warning: If you don’t have a strong stomach – you might want to stop reading here.

PG: Kampe – NO ! For this voting season, electing Bill Kampe is the worst mistake any community could make. His political career is probably the biggest hoax I’ve seen around here in a long time. What he says contrasted to what he does as an official could not be more upside down to each other.

His actions are so awful; so systematically, persistently and reliably awful it is hard to choose where to start. His official acts have revealed his real character: persistently insincere, disingenuous, untruthful (he regularly tells “Whoppers”) and his real values, which he wisely takes great pains to hide, are radically anti-public interest. Kampe loathes Open Government and our environment, Planning and financial responsibility. That’s as rare a combination as it is dangerous. Kampe has something for every one to dislike (except Pine Cone Publisher Paul Miller).

It is not because Kampe is stupid – he knows exactly what he is doing. He reminds me of Samuel Butler’s idea “Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.”

* Kampe Hates Trees – Brags that he Ran for Council to Gut Tree Protection Law – and he’s getting his wish . . . (See article “Welcome to Pacific Stump – Thanks to Bill Kampe and Robert Huitt“

* Kampe wants Fast Food Legalized (See article: Kampe’s Fast Food Gets Bad Reviews)

* Kampe is a major Holman Hotel supporter in “secret” meetings at City Hall – but is now falsely pretending he’s against the giant hotel – even though he admitted his support during on Candidate forum. (Which shines light on another major problem – You can’t trust Kampe to tell the truth.) Don’t believe this – ask Kampe two questions (but do NOT tell him your views first): Why did he vote to keep the Hotel off the ballot, and Will he vote YES on Measure F ?

* Kampe Opposes Fixing Illegal Pensions – Which means he’s fighting against saving us $45 million dollars and saving the City from Bankruptcy

* Kampe wants to get rid of our Historical Review Board – who protect our Historical buildings
* Kampe wants to eliminate our Architectural Review Board – who provide some architectural consistency
* Kampe even wants to get rid of our Planning Commission – which shows how radical and wrong he is. Which raises the question: Why did Kampe move here if he wants Pacific Grove to look like Silicon Valley and Seaside Strip Malls ?

* Kampe Voted for the Golf Course Clubhouse which violates our City Open Space Zoning Laws

* Incredibly thin-skinned Kampe Hates Public participation, thrives on secret opaque (vs transparent) government and censorship. He works hard to chop off Public Comment even when he is not Mayor constantly interfering with public comment and even interrupting Council discussion by wrongly raising “Point of Order.” His objections are typically ruled as wrong by the City Attorney. Not hard to imagine how bad he’ll be if he gets elected.

* Kampe Campaign Fraud? – Residents report that he intentionally mislead them that he is currently Mayor by telling them “I’m Pacific Grove’s Mayor pro-tem”.
 (In his first campaign for Council he told people he’d lived here for 5 years – when he’d only lived here for 1 year – but owned his house for 5 years.)

Do you want a Mayor who eagerly tells “fish stories” and misleads the public when he wants something ?

Pacific Grove Voters have a good opportunity to retire Kampe from politics before he does any more damage.

PG: Yes – Carmelita Garcia (Mayor): STRONG Point — She’s NOT Kampe !

We disagree on several issues, but she’s sincere and has worked longer than any other elected official to reverse the Illegal Pensions – which should save us $45 million dollars !
Ms. Garcia generally supports Transparent government, and has tried to get Public Records Access increased but is always blocked by Kampe, Huitt and the City Mangler Frutchey. She runs a fair meeting — never cutting off citizens in mid-sentence as Mayors Cort and Costello did (and Kampe will do in spades if elected).
She did get a bird nesting protection period (a few months) into the new Tree Destruction ordinance. Sadly, the rest of the Tree Destruction ordinance makes that meaningless; it means anyone including city staff can destroy trees for a maximum penalty of $100. (The permit can cost 20 times that amount)

PG – Casey Lucius = NO !

Casey Lucius is alarmingly hostile to the health of our Trees and Wildlife (and our City’s Budget) – while touting her vegetarian lifestyle. Those seemingly contradictory positions are not ordinarily Republican values.

Casey Lucius stunningly admitted “The Environment is NOT a criteria I use in making decisions – and it never will be.” – When interviewed by Pacific Grove Neighbors, Spring 2012

Similarly stunning was her lonely defense of the astronomical salaries and retirement benefits of Pacific Grove Safety employees. Those inflated salaries and retirement are breaking the back of the City budget. (Shouldn’t have been a surprise when some Fire Department employees wearing clothes with Official looking uniform logos were caught campaigning for Lucius, going door to door. And now the “Monterey Firefighters Association” is officially sending out Mailers for Ms. Lucius. Say, isn’t campaigning by city employees prohibited by law? ahhh actually yes it is.)

Lucius Opposes Fixing Illegal Pensions – She sold her “Defined Benefit Plan” to Weak Coastly but “forgot” to mention that it would cost $50 million dollars – right FIFTY MILLION dollars.

Like always, because Weak Coastly never attends any Council (or any other) Pacific Grove meetings – they weren’t smart enough to ask Lucius to explain the costs. They don’t have a single clue about what is really, physically going on in Pacific Grove because they get all their “facts” from their advertisers. Bradley Zeve’s breathtakingly ignorant potshots at Pacific Grove politics from Seaside bear remarkable resemblance to drive-by shootings. It makes sense when you realize he hired fiction writer Kera Abraham to masquerade as a reporter⁽¹⁾ — even though its still two weeks till Halloween.

Bailing out the City from Lucius’ misguided idea will cost you even more big bucks at Property Tax time than you already pay. Can you spell “Rent Rise?”

I like Mrs Lucius personally, she’s a kind person. However, her political values have such a sharp conflict with public interests. Perhaps that is why she is so heavily supported by the business community. I pondered for a while if she could be educated to support public interests including protecting our environment and concluded No. I base this on her jaw-dropping misunderstanding of the Pension crisis after spending at least an hour with a leading expert.

PG: Huitt – No.

* Robert Huitt is still Hostile to Public Participation in Council meetings and decisions – even after getting rebuked by the whole town a decade ago for trying to put public comment at the end of Council meetings.
* Huitt made the Motion and voted to eliminate City Tree Protection law just last Month.
* Huitt voted for the Golf Course Clubhouse which violates our City Open Space Zoning Laws

And of course Huitt Opposes Fixing the Illegal Pensions

If Kampe, Huitt and Lucius get elected and keep the current City Mangler Frutchey – it will be time to batten down the hatches for residents and wildlife alike. There will be nothing left of Pacific Grove to be proud of when they get through.

PG: Yes – Dan Miller (incumbent) Sincere, Life-long resident of Pacific Grove, immense deep knowledge of local issues. While we often disagree – Dan truly cares about our town.

PG: Yes – Mary Norton – Sincere, Caring and Thoughtful.

PG: Yes – Bob Pacelli – Sincere, made good efforts to protect Monarch Habitat when no one else would do anything.

Seaside: Rubio – No ! Always votes for development.

Monterey: No – Smith, supported by the “Machine.” Opposes staff retirement reform.

Monterey: Yes – Alan Haffa – MPC Prof – well respected, thoughtful.

Monterey: Yes – Bill McCrone – Change of Heart in recent years, now works to protect our public interests.

Marina Coast Water District: Tom Moore

County Supervisor: Del Piero or Potter?

Voting for either of the two supervisor candidates is a even more of a Hobson’s Choice than most races: Would you prefer to be shot or poisoned ?

I do not want either. Neither will make a solidly good Supervisor like Jane Parker, but then when was the last time you got to vote FOR someone who would make a good elected official ? Only a handful come to mind for me over the past 30 years.

However since we will be subject to one of them, of the two, I believe Del Piero may do the least damage – in the near term.

Of the self-serving harm to our community that each has committed, I feel Potter’s is dramatically more egregious, much worse. In addition, Potter now loathes the public, and when he does show up for a meeting his votes are patently and reliably terrible. He reliably votes to harm forests due to his indentured service to the Pebble Beach Company and notorious Land-use lawyer Tony Lombardo.

For more details see –

Dave Potter’s Anti-Environmental Voting Record

Several have documented Del Piero’s self-serving acts to get water for his family’s projects related to the Pajaro water District. (Herald article Oct 14, 2012)

However, Del Piero’s other work has resulted in a major good deed for our state’s environment. Del Piero did indeed have a central part in creating California’s Public Trust Doctrine (other states including Washington have no such protection for natural phenomena such as wildlife and ecosystems), though he might be slightly overselling his role.

Potter has no accomplishment that can hold a candle to that. Though he can pat himself on the back for helping save Carmel Valley Village’s Rippling River from some way out-of-control staffocrats.

I wouldn’t turn my political back on either politician (of course thats a good rule in general).

However, Del Piero is at least a gentleman (its hard not to like him personally) while doing his “politics,” as contrasted with Potter who is typically just gratuitously rude and mean.

I’ll never forget how Potter refused to meet with Girl Scouts who care about forests – twice. Then when they explained this at a Board of Supervisors meeting – he couldn’t help attacking them politically. You got that right – Potter attacked young girls and their mother for exposing his refusal to meet with them.

Since I’ve been watching from the beginning of Potter’s political career in Monterey, and have seen almost every vote he’s cast since he became Supervisor it remains a mystery how Potter obtained his false reputation of caring about our environment.

Ending Potter’s ugly political Career would be a very good thing.

All that adds up to my certain vote against Potter which translates into a vote “for” Marc Del Piero.

PG: No on Measure A: What ?

Schools are our investment in civilization. We all support schools right ? Of course.

Sadly the Pacific Grove School Board has a history of poor judgment and squandered our good will playing “Bait and Switch” with our tax dollars.

For example, with the money from Measure D, the district spent $6.8 million for a new Football stadium. This exceeded the total estimated costs for the Forest Grove ($1.6 million) and Robert Down ($4.2 million) school modernization projects. Weren’t we promised Measure D money was going for classrooms ?

And it spent $2.6 million for the high school “sub gym lobby.” This exceeds, by $1 million, the estimated costs for the entire Forest Grove modernization project.

The School Board destroyed magnificent huge Monterey pine trees – for a temporary building – that goes unused; the historic landmark Geodesic Dome at the Junior High / Middle School was bulldozed without any public notice and they are leasing land for huge Microwave antennas at Lighthouse School – directly next to children’s classes and playgrounds.

Moreover, even if the governor’s tax proposal fails, PGUSD will lose only $455 per student. That is only a 3.35% reduction per student. Such a small number does not justify a new parcel tax.

No on Measure A – because we can’t trust the Pacific Grove School Board.

So who and what do we vote for ? OK – Here you go . . .

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Yes Yes Yes Yes

Prop 37 = Will Require GMO (Genetically Modified) Food to carry Labels The only organized opposition to labeling our food is Monsanto and the other GMO manufacturers.

Prop 35 = Ban on Human Trafficking and Sex Slavery. You’re right its already illegal, but this will help law enforcement stop the people really responsible.

Prop 34: End Death Penalty What a novel idea. Sure lets bring California into the idea of Modern Civilization now that we’re a decade into the 21rst Century.

Yes on Prop 39 – Currently Out-of-state businesses have a tax advantage over our local businesses. Prop 39 will make it all fair and could generate a billion dollars in state revenue.

San Francisco

San Francisco’s Measure F = YES – So We Can Restore the Second Yosemite Valley ! “F” would fund a study of alternative water sources.

Remember the title – Take it or Leave it!

You are welcome to forward this to friends.

With my best wishes – because we’re going to need them,
David Dilworth

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|  Trees Consumed to Produce this Issue: Zero.   |
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Notes:
1. Weak Coastly favoring the Holman-strosity, the gigantic Holman’s hotel, shows you how they are no longer hiding their hostility to Pacific Grove residents and how they only listen to Craig Riddell (paid shill for Holman’s Developer Nader Agha), the always anti-public interest Commerce Chamber head Moe Ammar and former Mayor and EcoFraud Dan Cort.

Even as a Fiction writer, the Weakly’s Kera Abraham had a hard time painting disgraced Pacific Grove Mayor Dan Cort as an environmentalist. The problem she had to disguise is Cort’s actual substantive votes and words as Mayor directly contradicted that fanciful notion to anyone who watched him at Council meetings. Cort showed his reliable hostility to protecting Pacific Grove’s environment by his votes, his “rationale,” (and power to keep things off the Council agenda). All the while trying to distract everyone from the flat out fact that — Cort is a Developer ! — a Developer from STOCKTON – the Poster Child for “Bankrupt City.” Cort was only pretending he wanted our environment protected so he could get elected. That worked – until he had to cast his votes in public.

You who genuinely care about our Planet’s health should take Warning: Its amazing how far an Eco-Fraud can get with the most trivial effort. A developer merely needs to utter “sustainable” three times in public while pointing at a tree and more than a few superficial-enviros like Weak Coastly’s Bradley Zeve will worship at their feet. With a bit more effort Eco-Frauds can catch bigger fish. Even Robert Redford was fooled by the Rancho San Carlos massively deceptive Public Relations effort.PG: “F – NO !”     Measure F –