Vallejo Citizens Deserve Better

Why Jump Start Spells Disaster for our Town

Richard Grant

10/9/13

“The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” ~Plato

Our city government, my friends, is in the process of being taken over in a coup.  We can stop it, but it will take all of us to fight the big money special interests behind it. 

I have been an active lifelong Democrat, served as President of the local United Democrats for 16 years, managed several Democrat headquarters, and organized and hosted 19 successful Democrat fundraising barbecues. I’ve been a proud Democrat because they have stood for equal rights for all people, women’s rights to do what they want with their own bodies, and all of us caring for one another.

At least on the local level, that’s changed leading up to this election.

Over the past couple of years, while we’ve all been focusing on getting the city out of bankruptcy, volunteering in our neighborhoods and cleaning up the city, an organized group of Labor, Chamber of Commerce, Association of Realtors and the Democrat party itself, have been scheming to take over the City Council in the 2013 election.

They have formed a slate of candidates under a very well-funded PAC called Jump Start Vallejo. Ironic name because they don't want to Jump Start the city, they want to jump BACK to a time when they bought and controlled Vallejo's city councils.

Why Labor? Labor has asked that their endorsed candidates be willing to put binding arbitration back on the ballot (giving employee unions control in the contract negotiation process). At the United Dems candidates forum all four Jump Start candidates said they would consider putting binding arbitration on the ballot, and non-Jump Start candidates all said absolutely not. Labor wants to be in control of Vallejo’s employee contract decisions again. What's this mean? Higher pay and pensions.

Why the Chamber? The Chamber of Commerce wants to control the business decisions the City Council makes – they wanted to give a prime development parcel to Joe Callahan for $1 to build a government office building on our waterfront. They wanted to bring a Parolee Center to Vallejo – Pippen Dew herself wrote the Chamber's letter of support for it to the County practically begging them to bring it to out city.

Why Real Estate? A real estate PAC from Los Angeles gave $8,000 to the Jump Start PAC, in addition to individual donations to the some of the slate's candidates. Many realtors don’t want Vallejo to institute an absentee landlord ordinance and rental inspection ordinance/fees, which the current council has started to work on.

And finally, as a gay man, I am outraged that the local Democrat party would endorse Anthony Summers, a man who has publicly spoken out against two of the main platforms of the Democrat party – a woman’s right to choose and equal rights for ALL people.  In addition, he is affiliated with an organization that is promoting homosexuality as a death sentence in Uganda.   https://ibvallejo.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1752&Itemid=1

Just ask yourself: why would a real estate group from Los Angeles, a firefighters' PAC from San Francisco and our own city employees be putting so much money into Vallejo's City Council election? It smells rotten. 

I formed a PAC of Vallejo citizens who want to fight back against the Jump Start/Jump Back coup. We are Vallejo Citizens Deserve Better. To help or for more information, please go to our Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/JumpStartLie

And now for your viewing pleasure, and to get those questions started, here is Vallejo Citizens Deserve Better’s first information sharing video:

Note: All opinions expressed in the "Primal Scream" column are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Vallejo Independent Bulletin