Saratoga News

Letters & Opinions

Council should be accountable to the people, not shadow group

By Dale Bryant

When I became the editor of the Saratoga News 10 years ago, it felt like coming home. My family moved to Saratoga when my father became a teacher at Saratoga Grammar School. He spent his entire career in Saratoga, most of those years as an elementary school principal.

My days in Saratoga were filled with exploring the creek, hiking in the hills, long hours in the library at the corner of Oak Street and Highway 9 and warm summer evenings playing kick-the-can with the neighborhood kids.

Once my job took me back to Saratoga, I tried to get up to speed on local politics. It didn't take long to learn of a sort of shadow government that seemed to wield a lot of power working behind the scenes.

This group put up a slate of candidates for every council election, but when I asked why they were running on a slate instead of independently, they always said they discovered they shared a philosophy and decided to run as a slate to save money.

I never believed it for a minute. Nor did anyone who knew anything about Saratoga politics.

In the past, we have sometimes endorsed slate candidates, but never "the slate." This year, we pointedly endorsed the non-slate candidates--Chuck Page, Hab Siam and Kathleen King. In our endorsement, we explained why: We believe council members should be accountable to the community, not to a shadow group to whom they owe allegiance.

Since our endorsement came out two weeks ago, I have been disheartened to see how low the caliber of political debate has sunk in my home town. I shouldn't have been surprised. This is a politically savvy group that knows how to mount a letter-writing campaign and how to use innuendo, half-truths and, yes, bold-faced lies to tarnish whatever person or cause they choose.

While we have run their letters, assuming sophisticated readers will see these people for what they are, a few statements need a response.

Of particular concern is the personal abuse being heaped upon Saratoga News editor Dick Sparrer. In a letter published in the Oct. 25 issue, a member of this group says: "We understand that the editor, who came from sports editing, wanted a reason to endorse the other candidates, who would keep spending even more on soccer ... ."

This is a classic case of using innuendo to cast aspersions on someone without a single fact to support the claim.

Yes, Dick Sparrer is also our sports editor; he loves sports and he is committed to youth sports coverage in our papers. That doesn't mean he's looking for candidates who want to build sports fields. The fact is the Saratoga News has editorialized against full-fledged playing fields at Kevan Moran Park.

I told Dick he shouldn't run letters that make unfounded accusations and stated "facts" that we know to be untrue, but it is his nature to bend over backwards to give all sides their say. I have never known an editor who is more passionate about community journalism and his responsibility to local readers.

Another reader makes the ridiculous claim that San Jose is trying to force its planning standards on Saratoga. I thought this was pretty off-the-wall, but now I am seeing it crop up as part of the slate's fear tactics. This argument might have made sense 50 years ago when Saratogans protected themselves from San Jose's encroachment by incorporating as a city.

It is true that the state requires each city to include a housing element in its General Plan. It is the Association of Bay Area Governments, not San Jose, that sets the number for each Bay Area city.

This writer then takes a leap of logic to suggest that since the Community Newspapers now have a relationship with the Mercury News that we take our marching orders from the Merc.

What the Mercury News cares about is that we meet the budget numbers they give us, but they don't tell us how to do it. Eventually, there will be shared accounting systems, and undoubtedly there will be other shared services designed to cut costs. Editorially, we remain independent. No one tells us who to endorse or what to say in our editorials. We continue to write the stories we choose to write and to play them as we see fit.

Another letter proclaims our endorsement is simply our opinion. Well, yes. That's exactly what an endorsement is. Like our editorials, they represent the position of the paper. And like our editorials, they are approved by our editor, our publisher David Cohen and me.

We also cover every forum, and sponsor the League of Women Voters forums with free advertising. We also profile every candidate and follow news stories about the campaign.

Prior to our endorsement decision, all six candidates participated in an editorial board meeting at our office at our headquarters.

This year when Dick and I were reviewing the issues, I said I would like to start by asking who would speak for the slate. We expected the same old answer.

Instead, it turned into a very telling free-for-all that lasted about 20 minutes. Jill Hunter said she didn't know how to run a campaign, and Jeff Schwartz does. That was why she was on the slate. Kathleen King, a former slate candidate, confirmed she had fallen out of favor, and Hab Siam informed us he had been invited to be on the slate but refused to make the concessions that were demanded.

It confirmed for us what we already knew: the people who select the candidates and back the slate--a shadowy behind-the-scenes group--wield a lot of power in this city. That's why we decided to make the slate a much bigger issue than we have in past elections.

One of the things I've always loved about being involved with community newspapers is that local elections are truly grassroots. Anyone who wants to run can. Local elections are usually free from the kind of dirty tricks and influence that permeate politics at every other level. I wish it were true in Saratoga.

Dale Bryant is the executive editor of the Saratoga News.