Santa Clara Focus – Opinion
Striking Out Miles Barber
By Robert Haugh
In this issue (Nov. 2, 2016) of the Santa Clara Weekly, there’s a lot of spaghetti being thrown at walls. There’s allegations, conspiracies and stories with anonymous sources. I don’t really know where to begin.
But this week, I’ll focus on Milestones. I’ll play the role of editor here, since no one apparently edits Miles Barber’s columns for facts. I know that he owns the paper and can write what he wants. But lately, his columns are irresponsible rants similar to those of certain presidential candidate with bad hair. Here are some examples:
Barber writes: “the Weekly has learned from reliable sources there may be a DA investigation going on regarding the Mayor.” Really? Reliable sources? For as long as I worked there, no one at the Weekly, especially Miles, had any sources in that office. So I called and wrote the DA’s office.
This is the point blank response from Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney John Chase: “Election season, in particular, is not an appropriate time for the District Attorney’s Office to disclose who we are or are not investigating. To many people an “investigation” automatically implies that there was wrongdoing. We must take care that our statements and actions do not unnecessarily influence elections.”
Sorry, Miles. Strike one.
Next, Barber writes, “She [Mayor Gillmor] has made misleading statements that money is being used from our General Fund for the stadium. The record indicates exactly the opposite with $7 million coming our way.”
I guess Miles doesn’t read anything besides the Weekly. Here’s what the Mercury News wrote weeks ago: “An ongoing audit ordered by Mayor Lisa Gillmor has found that the city has used public funds to subsidize operations at Levi’s Stadium, a violation of the ballot measure that approved it for the San Francisco 49ers. “We do believe that staff time has been spent that wasn’t billed to the Stadium Authority or the 49ers entities,” the city’s hired auditor, Fred Brousseau of Harvey M. Rose Associates, LLC, said during an audit committee meeting Wednesday. “The extent of it, I can’t tell you today.”
Strike two, Miles.
Then, Miles writes that “The Weekly has just discovered a major lawsuit was received weeks ago at City Hall that hasn’t been placed on the Council agenda.”
I guess Miles doesn’t even read his own paper. If he turned to page nine, he would see a story that says the City received a letter from an attorney, not a lawsuit. Big difference don’t you think? It was received October 13, less than 30 days ago.
Strike three, and you’re out, Miles.
Robert Haugh’s column will appear on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
It was an opinion piece, so meh. How do you feel about the potential influence of all the monies donated to candidates or spent on their behalf? This was documented on your site, and also in the Weekly.
There is certainly influence with the outside monies being spent. I have “Following the Money: Part 2” to be posted very soon that will focus on the outside funding coming into the election. We should be thankful there’s only around $100k give or take – whereas in Anaheim there’s around $1 million being spent to influence elections. Politicking as usual. I don’t form a personal opinion and I remain as neutral as possible. No one can claim 100 percent neutrality, of course. But I try here to present as many views, opinions and facts as possible. There is a lot more to come – this site is only two weeks old and is still in it’s infancy – there’s much more to come – news, sports, City Council and School District coverage, features of local business, “beyond Santa Clara” stuff, staycation ideas, etc. I believe there is a lot of special interests in this election – the question is WHY? That is what we are trying to get to the bottom of. Union vs. PAC? Who knows.
Union vs. PAC? Not really.
If the numbers reported in the Weekly are correct, many developers have given money to the POA to distribute. It appears the POA is aligned with the developers, and by extension so are Gillmor and her slate of candidates. And as the Weekly points out, there are police union negotiations coming up.
Something smells fishy.
There’s a lot of fishy stuff in Santa Clara. I’m working to shed light on it. Stay tuned.
Miles Barber is the Donald Trump of Santa Clara!!! What next? Build a wall around the city??? Loony tunes.
LOL. You struck him out. He’s certainly no genius.