Campaign Statements and recently published works regarding the recall election:
From the 8/12/2011 Independent Coast Observer "Makes no Sense" Dear editor, |
From the 8/12/2011 Independent Coast Observer "Funny Business" Editor, Leslie Dahlhoff failed to mention last week that her Council unintentionally botched the vote for their Subdivision Ordinance (an insufficient 2/1) and no-one noticed until David Ingham read the fine print ten years later. We then brought in respected planner George Williamson, who drew from the good work of the former Council and also found ways to improve and modernize it, making the responsibilities of all parties clearer. His product bridges the differences between the two camps and was well worth the cost of $10K. Regarding Wastewater, our Preliminary Engineering Report was commissioned on USDA instruction as the mandatory pathway to access funding. Dahlhoff’s term ended in 2008. Does anyone remember that world (before the economic crash)? It’s a different reality today and funding has shrunk! This decision will not be made until after the recall, but our Council was trying to continue the work of our predecessors and bring in outside money to benefit ratepayers. Senior Center and Housing: the Seniors want to benefit from a donation of land, but its location is highly restricted by an our General Plan and a special agreement from 1990. We feel it’s worth $3K to have the County Planning Department prepare an impartial staff report. This complex project would require an amendment to the General Plan. Such changes don’t happen often, but when they do, they can result in an improved document. The last time we adopted an applicant-requested, site-specific amendment to our General Plan was in November 2004 and interestingly, the developer was recaller Richey Wasserman who complains so bitterly about this council. Wasserman received a zoning change for his single parcel, allowing him to subdivide and build a second home. Funny how he sees gross favoritism when his adversary might benefit and flexible decision-making when the benefit is to himself. Lauren Sinnott |
Lauren Sinnott CANDIDATE STATEMENT I am committed to fiscal responsibility, creative thinking and fairness. I support the Senior Center (and Senior Housing), the library and theater, our pier and fisheries, local business and agriculture. I have worked to support employee excellence and accountability. One of our biggest challenges is personnel management within our unique non-City Manager structure. The other is the economy and budget-tightening that lies ahead. My greatest personal achievement is the competitive Safe Routes to School award and related grants that are delivering work and money: over half a million dollars for reconstructing two major intersections on Highway 1 and Lake Street sidewalks. I’m also proud of acquiring the scenic 4-acre “Rock Wall” cove property for an unheard-of $100,000 (future campground bringing business to town) and the overhaul of record-keeping and administrative process at City Hall, which we couldn’t accomplish without our tireless Clerk/Administrator. Visit www.artgoddess.com/pointarenapolitics.html for a comprehensive list of projects and other material you won’t see elsewhere. Thoughtful people with important concerns have become involved in the recall, but its initial fuel was personal vendetta and resentment from two sources that by now are probably known to most. This has been an abuse of process at your expense. Does the reader even remember what the charges against us are? Vague intimations of lack of intellect and honesty; unfounded assertion of conflict of interest (if I have profited by this job, someone show me where the money is!) and not listening. Recalls should be reserved for actual malfeasance. Consider the charge against me and Eloisa Oropeza of violating the Brown Act. Well, it took three for that inadvertent forwarded email exchange. Hmm, what happened to the third party? Unbelievably, he is running as a replacement candidate in this very election, called for the infraction he committed, before whistleblowing on himself to the ICO and accusing Council of what he’d just done. (read more) Point Arena doesn’t deserve this. Please vote NO. Lauren Sinnott, Point Arena City Councilmember and Mayor |
Letter to the Anderson Valley Advertiser 8/17/2011 "Keep the P.A. Council" Editor: To the Voters of Point Arena please think about this recall. As a visitor to your city, I love the improvements! Please stand up and be proud of your City Council. They have accomplished a great deal. For example:
The list goes on and on, so let's start with the issues: Senior housing: You mean to tell me the Recallers don't have a Granny, Grandpa, aunt, uncle or cousin who wouldn't benefit from an affordable safe housing unit? Our elders are the ones who provided us with the comforts we now enjoy. Recallers, I think you should be ashamed to not want to help Seniors out and use old wounds to punish them. And what about well paying jobs for the Young people that this project would provide? The economy sucks. Your local folks deserve decent jobs and not just from pot-growing. It's a win/win situation. Ask the folks who live on Mill Street, Center Street and Scott Place if they want their old roads back! I think they would tell you their lives are better now than before. Originally only 1 road was scheduled to be improved until road bids were re-worked. Which 2 streets would have been left out? Complain all you want about Councilmember David Ingham, but he did get 3 street improvements instead of one. Brian Riehl, Lloyd Cross & others, do you know how to write a bid? David saved the City a lot of money because he knows how to do this. Onto the sewers. Folks, for 30 years you haven’t been saving for sewer maintenance & compliance. You are being given the opportunity for the Federal Government to help you and you want to turn it down? That money won’t be there next time if the conservatives in Congress have their way. It's going to cost you more money not less once the fines start rolling in. So, let me get this straight, the Recallers don't care about the ratepayers or the environment? Wow. Patricia Schwindt, I only met you 1 time... at Way TOO early in the Morning on a Saturday no less, July 2009 ... pounding on the door ... You were rallying up the troops, spreading gossip the way I understand & remember it. What really bothers me about the incident is you wanted my signature on your petition and I don't even live in Point Arena. Why do you want to punish the Mayor, Lauren Sinnott? It's your husband, Lloyd Cross who apparently was behaving badly. Your personal life should stay personal. Lauren is bright, intelligent and gets things done. Let's keep the focus on her job as Mayor. She has taken the ball and run with it. Others may have started the tasks but she has completed them. In my opinion, Lauren is a very attractive and talented woman whose beauty comes from a genuine love of Community, Family and Self. Now, Patricia why should the Voters vote for your husband, Lloyd Cross? He quit as City treasurer. Didn’t he quit at the Point Arena School District? What makes the Voter think he is going to stick with the job this time? Please explain his unexcused absences when he was last on the city council. Please tell us of his accomplishments. What would make the Voter proud to have him back? Brian Riehl, why should the Voter vote for you? Why should the Voter vote for the person who is the culprit in the Brown Act violation? Why do you want back on the council you resigned from? You were absent a lot. Please explain your absences. David Ingham, Joe Riboli & Lauren Sinnott work hard for you! These folks spend a lot of time on your behalf. Don't you feel good about where you live?!!! Your future is looking better, don't you think? Please Vote No under the name on your recall ballot for your Council members Ingham, Riboli & Sinnott, as well as Oropeza. Thank you for your consideration. Respectfully submitted, Flo Flowing Bayside, CA |
Submission for the Anderson Valley Advertiser The Point Arena recall election is upon us and constituents have until August 30th to vote, all by mail. Only 250 Point Arena residents may cast votes but the result matters to our much larger surrounding community. If you are one of the 250, I hope you vote NO to recalling me and the current council. I am honored to serve as Point Arena Councilmember and Mayor. I love combining the rich experience of local duties with representing our community professionally and effectively on the larger stage (of Ukiah!) I am committed to fiscal responsibility, creative thinking and fairness. I support the Senior Center (and Senior Housing), the library and theater, our pier and fisheries, local business and agriculture. I have worked to support employee excellence and accountability. One of our greatest challenges is personnel management within our unique non-City Manager structure. The other is the economy and budget-tightening that lies ahead. My greatest personal achievement is writing the competitive Safe Routes to School award and related grants that are bringing work and money to our town: over half a million dollars to reconstruct two major intersections on Highway 1 and fill in sidewalks around the City’s five schools. Thoughtful people with important concerns have become involved in this recall, but its initial fuel was personal vendetta and resentment from two sources that by now are probably known to most. This has been an abuse of process at your expense. Does the reader even remember what the charges against us are? Vague intimations of lack of intellect and honesty; unfounded assertion of conflict of interest (if I have profited by this job, someone show me where the money is!) and not listening. Recalls should be reserved for actual malfeasance. Consider the charge against me and Eloisa Oropeza of violating the Brown Act. Well, it took three for that inadvertent forwarded email exchange. Hmm, what happened to the third party? Unbelievably, he is running as a replacement candidate in this very election, called for the infraction he committed, before whistle-blowing on himself to the Independent Coast Observer and accusing Council of what he’d just done. (read more about this...) Point Arena doesn’t deserve this. Last week former Mayor Leslie Dahlhoff criticized the current City Council’s contracting with a planning firm for a Draft Subdivision Ordinance, but she failed to mention that her Council had unintentionally botched the vote for their Subdivision Ordinance (an insufficient 2/1) and no-one noticed until Councilmember David Ingham read the fine print 10 years later. Although there was excellent work done by many to create that document during the nineties, several currently active and knowledgeable local professionals have found the invalid Ordinance to be difficult to navigate. Respected planner George Williamson took the work that the former Council had done and found a number of ways to improve and modernize it, while clearly defining the responsibilities of all parties. Whether you are a major or minor subdivider, a large developer or the purchaser of a single lot, your role is now easier to understand. His work bridged the differences between the two camps and was well worth the cost of $10K. Regarding Wastewater, the improvement project was begun by Dahlhoff and council in 2008 and developed by many of the recallers, including Lloyd Cross and Brian Riehl, with administrative staff central to the project as well. When I came into it, we were at the stage of pre-application with USDA. Our Preliminary Engineering Report was commissioned on USDA instruction as the mandatory pathway to accessing their grant/low interest loan money. And the world of financing has changed since Dahlhoff’s term ended in 2008. Does anyone remember that world (before the economic crash)? It’s a different reality today and funding has shrunk! If we had pursued this project in 2006 we may have gotten 90% grant money instead of 50%. This decision will not be made until after the recall, but the intention of our Council was to continue the work of our predecessors and bring in outside money to benefit ratepayers. About the subject of spending city money on favored applicants: the Senior Housing project is a special case of high significance. The Seniors want to benefit from a major donation of land, but its location is highly restricted by our General Plan, according to a special agreement approved in 1990. Naturally any developer wants to develop a property to his own advantage, but in this case there is massive distrust built up between old warring parties of developer and former council. After the current council consulted with the Coastal Commission, the complexity of the situation and the importance of Senior Housing convinced us that it was worth $3K to have County Planning Department prepare a staff report. They are professional and impartial and can guide us forward if reasonable. Please note that the applicant/developer will still have to prepare and pay for the full Comprehensive Development Permit. If this project advances, it will require an amendment to the General Plan. Such changes don’t happen often, but when they do, they can result in an improved document. The last time we approved an applicant-requested, site-specific amendment to our General Plan was in November 2004 and interestingly, the applicant was recaller Richey Wasserman, who has complained so bitterly about this council’s work. Wasserman requested and received a zoning change for his single parcel, allowing him to subdivide and build a second home. I voted with former Councilmembers Dahlhoff and Gunning to approve this project and still think it was a good decision. But what’s funny is how Wasserman sees gross favoritism when a new Council decision might benefit his old adversary and flexible decision-making when the benefit was to himself. Please vote NO under each councilmember’s name and visit www.artgoddess.com/pointarenapolitics.html for amusingly organized documentation and a digital version of our campaign booklet, as well as Spanish translations of candidate statements. Por favor entre en este website para más información y los declaraciones de los candidatos en Español. Vote NO para el recuento. Lauren Sinnott |
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