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By Gary Cloutier
Posted 01/23/2008
Challenge the Recount!
Dear Vallejo Voter,
Doing the right thing is never easy. That is why I filed a contest to dispute the recount results in the Vallejo Mayor’s race. On January 27, 2008 at 4 p.m. at 733 Tennessee Street in Vallejo, I intend to hold a public meeting to disclose all I know about this election and contest, and to seek funds to pay for this effort. Here’s why I have taken this action.
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The day after county officials told me they had “counted every ballot”, and that I lost the election by three votes, the Registrar called my campaign manager to report that they had found a ballot marked in my favor “in the trash,” and the margin of victory was no longer three but two votes.
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In a memo dated December 20, 2007, county officials advised the Board of Supervisors of an eleven vote discrepancy between the machine (under which I was sworn in as Mayor by five votes) and the hand recount. The Board was told that most “but not all” of the discrepancies could “reasonably be explained.”
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The Board of Supervisors was further told that in a secret staff recount of the board recount in four out of the 47 Vallejo precincts, the recount was incorrect in two and that I “most likely” received one of those votes. If 2 of the 4 precincts were wrong, one has to wonder what the outcome would be if all the precincts were recounted.
We saw what happened in 2001 when the Supreme Court ordered a halt to the recount in Florida and stole the elections for the Republicans. It is time to stop bureaucrats and judges from pushing the voters around! I have advanced $26, 000 to attorneys who specialize in election law to file a contest against Osby Davis who is, unfortunately, and as a result of procedure required by law, the named defendant. I am advised that the attorneys’ fees may reach $100,000 to get to the bottom of what happened in this election and to seek a fair outcome for all. That is why I need your help. You may send your donations to Friends of Gary Cloutier, Box 713, Vallejo, California 94590 or go to: http://GARYFORMAYOR07.COM for more information or to make a donation by Pay Pal.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Very truly yours,
Gary Cloutier |
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Don't pull the plug!
By David Corbett
Posted 01/17/2008
At the Dec. 18th city council meeting, councilman Bartee proposed pulling the plug on the appeal of the arbitrator's decision in the firefighter's contract dispute. I'm sure this will be raised again as the council considers the budget, and I want to urge the council not to abort the appeal process. It would make for both bad law and bad public policy.
First, it would make for bad law: The legal issue is the interpretation of the current firefighters contract with the city. The contract is ambiguous as to whether minimum staffing requirements stated within it were to last only for the first year or for the length of the contract.
When a contract can not be interpreted on its own terms, the trier of fact must determine whether there was ever a genuine meeting of the minds between the parties on the ambiguous portion(s) of the contract.
One of the principal ways to do this is to examine the intent of the parties in entering the contract, and this was considered extensively by the arbitrator. Testimony was taken from both sides concerning what their understanding of the minimum staffing clause was. |
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Primal Scream
Opinion Worth Pondering
Dear Voters...
By Barbara R. Kondylis
Posted 01/11/2008
Dear Voters of Solano County,
Here in the United States we are told that every vote counts...................and it should. But what about when the same vote is counted again, and again?
Thisis what happened in Solano County in the November Election and no oneseems concerned, least of all Mike Johnson-County Administrator and ourimmediate past Chair-Mike Reagan (Supervisor District 5) and immediatepast Vice-Chair-John Silva (Supervisor District 2) who set the Board ofSupervisor's agenda. I requested, in December, that adiscussion on the election be placed on our agenda for lastTuesday.................and was denied (the first time, to my knowledge, thatthis has ever happened to a member of the Board).
What is it that they don't want you, the voters of Solano County, to know? TheBoard of Supervisors are ultimately responsible for what happens inevery county department and the Registrar of Voters is no exception. We as the Board should be held accountable, just as all county departments should be accountable to the Board.
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Primal Scream
Opinion Worth Pondering
Tom Bartee and Alan Davis Make December 18th a Day to Remember
By David Corbett
12/30/07
This piece was refused by the Times Herald
Perhaps it was the holidays, or the relative calm that settled over city hall since the recount was concluded, but I found myself feeling guardedly hopeful that a new tone had worked its way into Vallejo’s politics. Regrettably, it took a single day—Tuesday, December 18th—for my optimism to vanish.
The first blow was a comment made by Alan Davis, attorney for the public safety unions, quoted in the Times-Herald: The unions do not believe the city faces a deficit. Anyone who has attended city council meetings lately—and I would encourage more citizens to do so—realizes that this ongoing refusal to concede the obvious is not merely willful delusion. It’s a cynical attempt to confuse the public about what the real issues are in the budget standoff.
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