The following was addressed to Mayor Andy Stern. I received your most recent election mailer. I tip my hat to you. I have never seen anyone pack so many lies into a single piece of paper. I am referring to the statements in your mailer that claim that you voluntarily told the state granting agencies that Malibu did not want the $11 million if free state grants they were offering us.
Apparently you believe that losing $11 million in free state grant money and replacing these free funds with bonds that need to be paid off by Malibu taxpayers is a good idea. Since you are so proud of losing the grants, a growing number Malibu taxpayers would like you to agree to pay off their share of the “voluntary debt” you decided to give us.
The true story of the lost $11 million in state grants is even worse. Malibu did not voluntarily withdraw a request for these funds. We lost them because you, Mr. Stern, screwed up. Any interested party can go on the Internet and search out the Malibu Times or Surfside News articles for the week of Nov 16, 2005. These articles reported the facts before you decided to make stuff up. The following quote comes from one of those articles:
“The city lost its grant money, at least for now, for several reasons. The major reason is that the California Department of General Services, which needs to approve an appraisal before most of the granting agencies would finalize their grants, said Malibu did not conduct an appropriate appraisal of the Chili Cook-Off site”
You have given Malibu voters a clear choice this year. If they want someone who is good at lying to cover up their failures, you are clearly their boy.
Steve Uhring