Saratoga News

Letters & Opinions

Newspaper is silent on questionable campaign issues

By Jeffrey Schwartz

When the city council put the North Campus question on the June ballot, those of us opposing the North Campus sale had little idea what kind of campaign our opposition would mount. Would the three-person council majority that favored the sale raise a lot of money, hire political consultants, try to develop grassroots support? We did not know.

After several weeks, a city-wide mailer appeared. It featured a picture and quote from one of the council majority but no committee name or Fair Political Practices Commission number and just a Saratoga return address; the office manager there knew nothing about the mailer or the campaign.

Next, "Yes on J" lawn signs appeared, all put up in one day, primarily placed illegally in public rights-of-way or on residential lawns directly in front of our "No on J" lawn signs. The mystery deepened. We were unable to find any of the required FPPC or financial filings.

A second city-wide "Yes on J" mailer appeared the week before the election. It featured pictures and quotes from each of the three-person council majority, and included an FPPC number. The number is registered to "Yes on J." No surprise there. The treasurer is listed as Cynthia Downing, but her address is in Fresno. A phone call to Ms. Downing turned extraordinary. She was appalled because she was treasurer of a "Yes on J" local campaign in Fresno two years ago. She has no knowledge of any Saratoga campaign. Is this identity theft from a political campaign? Evidently.

Confusion over FPPC numbers? No, because the day after the election, "Yes on J" (Saratoga) still had no FPPC number. A week later, the developer scheduled to buy the North Campus if "Yes on J" prevailed, Mike Masoumi, finally applied for his own FPPC number. No, there are still no financial filings.

California's campaign reform laws were enacted to let the public know who is in charge of political campaigns, who is contributing how much money and how that money is being spent. Those laws were flaunted; the public and we, as the opposition, had access to none of that information.

Most Saratogans know nothing of this story. The San Jose Mercury News, as a matter of principle, ignores political issues outside San Jose and the Los Gatos Daily News, which covered this story well, does not reach many Saratogans. Where, then, was the Saratoga News as this rather outrageous story unfolded? They simply chose to ignore it. They had editorialized repeatedly and one-sidedly for selling the North Campus, and the paper was not about to raise issues that might question their own editorial stance. Isn't refusing to cover one side of a major local story tantamount to censorship? That would seem a fair question.

Is there other evidence to support that charge? From the outset, we argued it was unethical to sell the North Campus and keep the profit when a church had sold the property to the city at more than a million dollars below market value, based on the city's representation that the property would be put to community use. The council majority's answer that there was no written agreement seemed to us to fail the smell test. The issue was awkward for the "Yes on J" side, so the Saratoga News ignored the issue. Completely.

The city spent $24,000 on a city-wide survey. Residents had asked the council to include questions about the North Campus, Kevin Moran Park and other controversial issues. The council refused, perhaps not wanting resident opinions on key issues. Had the survey included a question about the North Campus, the results would have been clear and the council would have saved itself the $90,000 cost of this election. How did the Saratoga News treat this issue? By pretending it did not exist.

Three council members continued to participate in a rogue political campaign after they knew there were no financial filings or FPPC number. City officials knew the name of the sign company erecting the "Yes on J" signs. These council members and city officials refused to answer questions, about the identity of the campaign consultant, the sign company and the persons behind the campaign, and refused to return phone calls to the Los Gatos Daily News. The Saratoga News' response to our officials stonewalling and keeping information from the public? Silence.

I recognize there is a long and rich tradition of yellow journalism throughout this country's history, but that does not comfort me with regard to the operation of the Saratoga News.