Brown not to blame for SFA mixup
By: CARLOS COTA - Commentary:
A recently published column ("Brown's record less than meets the eye," Oct. 20) regarding the military service of Thomas Brown seems to paint the Encinitas City Council candidate in a poor light. That column, however, does not address the whole story and seems to have the end effect of leaving the reader with a skewed impression of Mr. Brown's honesty. As vice president of the local chapter of the Special Forces Association, I feel compelled to set the record straight by making the public aware of the full story.
The original column written by J. Stryker Meyer refers to statements Mr. Brown printed in various campaign materials that claim he is a member of the Special Forces Association. Meyer's research, however, suggests that Brown's claims to membership in the SFA are in fact false. The original article left me with the impression that Brown's military service was being called into question, though Meyer is careful to not actually state that contention.
I would like the record to show that Thomas Brown did submit his application for local level membership in the SFA to me prior to printing the statements in his campaign materials. During the course of our conversation that day, however, I am afraid I may have given Mr. Brown the false impression that his application would have been fully processed and approved by the time his campaign materials were printed. This simple misunderstanding resulted in me inadvertently misleading him. I have forwarded Mr. Brown's application through the proper channels and cannot say for certain as to when or if his application will be approved. Yet I would like to clarify that a cursory examination of his military history shows an impeccable service record. Mr. Brown is most certainly not making false claims regarding his service to our country, nor should he or any of our veterans and active personnel be considered anything less than heroic for the liberties they defend.
-- Retired Sgt. Maj. Carlos Cota of the U.S. Army Special Forces lives in Carlsbad and is vice president of the Special Forces Association's Roger Donlon MOH chapter No. 75 in San Diego County.
J. Stryker Meyer's previous hit piece on Brown.
Did anyone see J. Stryker Meyer having lunch with Jack Orr previous to the column?
BOOYAH!
ReplyDeleteno but J.S. Meyer was at the Enc. Chamber Candidate Forum the other night. What a coincidence.
ReplyDeleteWith biased columnists like Meyer and Login Jenkins, it is no wonder newspaper circulations are plummeting. The Jack Orr connection is almost certain, but misses the real connection to the large developers. Why did the NC Times support Prop A? Why do J Stryker Meyer and Login Jenkins attack the candidates who defend our city from over development? Why does Barrett’s Michael Pattison have a regular column in the NC Times? Who buys large pages of ad space in you local Sunday paper?
ReplyDeleteThe common thread is developers.
The large developers won’t be satisfied until San Diego looks like LA and they won’t be satisfied even then.
Vote for Teresa Barth to protect our City.
Don’t vote for Danny or Doug (D&D)
Please developer people,
ReplyDeleteAt least support candidates that have a clue and won't financially ruin our City.
Under Dalager's hand the city spends more, borrowed more, wasted more, fees have increased and Dalager and Co. keep trying to raise taxes.
Remember now, we couldn't keep the lights on without the lighting tax going up, but maybe if they paid the bills on time that would not be a problem. Don't forget when Danny illegally raised taxes and got sued by Howard Jarvis, and then Prop C was just a collasal waste of taxpayer's money.
I will complain about Danny's tax increases unless and until someone is willing to pay my share of Danny's tax increase the next time he tries to pull something like that.
All these calls for apologies in earlier blogs, where is the apology from JS Meyer and the Dalager/Long camp?
ReplyDeleteWho is Jack Orr?
ReplyDeleteJack Orr is a political consultant who was run out of Oceanside.
ReplyDeleteOrr is a sleazy campaign consultant from Oceanside. He's been described as a hard drinking, hard nosed ex-Marine whose political style is to go negative and personal. Orr was the founding force behind the "Flower PAC", a group of local flower developers who attacked Dennis Holz shamelessly using misleading fliers. Orr also has acted as political consultant to Stocks, Bonds and Dalager.
ReplyDeleteand long
ReplyDeleteI think the hit piece made Tom Brown seem less forceful, less direct at the last forum, on Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteHe seemed a bit too mild-mannered, and had no questions for other candidates. I would have, and was glad Teresa had the courage to ask Dan Dalager a question, which he didn't answer well, in my opinion.
Tom Brown does seem like a good guy, to me, but I feel as though I need to bullet vote for Teresa Barth because of the threat of the D&D duo.
OMG! I can't believe how mean Christy Guerin and Dan Dalager were to the North County Times, Maggie Houlihan and Bob Bonde and Donna Westbrook.
ReplyDeleteWhere do they get off? That's what arrogant Dalager was asking, that anyone could ever print an article questioning the spending that was done without prior authorization.
You know what was weird? When someone had asked why it was necessary to hear presentations from all the candidates for the voluntary commissions, like the Senior Commission, the Youth Commission, last Wednesday, a position for the Planning Commission, Jerome Stocks said it had to be done that way. However, of the three candidates, last week, for Planning Commission, only Bruce Ehlers and Kevin Forrester made presentations. Some Van Sykes guy "couldn't come" and would "meet privately" with the Council. Well, guess who Bond, Dalager and Guerin voted for, for Olivenhein Planning Commissioner, yesterday? The one the public didn't get to hear.
ReplyDeleteI was glad Jerome Stocks was consistent and didn't vote for the absentee candidate. He voted for Kevin. Maggie voted for Bruce. Bruce was brave to run, knowing Council is stacked against him. He gave a good presentation.
The Kevin person seemed nice, too. So why, if they need to make public presentations, did Dalager, Guerin and Bond vote for the one candidate who didn't?
Politics, as usual, with Dalager going along.
Dalager is a ding dong.
ReplyDeleteHe's not stupid, but he's confused, unaware, and easily manipulated by the likes of Guerin. Also, he will do his best to cover-up the shenanigans of other Council Members. They do not want "new blood," that's why D&D are their first choice.
I don't always agree with Maggie Houlihan, but I'm sure glad she's there. Wish she could come back, in person, soon.
Tom Brown is handleing this issue very very well.
ReplyDeleteI think he will have a piece in the paper, oh, about two days before the election, as well as mass mailers to the citizens detailing his service to the country, his service in special ops, complete with testimonials from those in the trenches with him.
I think the NCTimes/J.S.Meyer got it wrong on both Tom Brown and Dan Dalager.
If this is the case, Tom will get a lot of sympathy and political mileage from it at the most crucial time.
This leaves Teresa Barth and Doug Long essentially out of the news the last week and might hand the election to Dan and Tom.
Dan's a sure thing.
Tom, if he fires for effect, might pull a rabbit out of his hat.
Hey, if the dude served he is one rightous dude with a platinum busiess pedigree as well.
If he can't prove it... toss up between Teresa and Doug.
I'm hoping for Teresa. To mush testosterone on the dias.
Chick power!
The Q. about his SFA membership came after the absentee ballot. So no harm done on the first 25% of the vote.
ReplyDeleteIf he clears it up before the election, I agree with the previous poster.
except Teresa #1
Brown #2
regards,
Dick Morris
People said Prop A was a sure thing, Prop C was a sure thing.
ReplyDeleteNow the same people are saying Dan is a sure thing.
He's not.
Dick Morris
ReplyDeleteSounds like
Mike Andreen, Bob Nananinga
or Dans political hack.
Teresa wins
the other three in a toss up.
Paul = comic relief and kept Leucadia Funky
I think NCT does print some decent letters to the editor, and Adam Kaye is doing better investigative reporting, now.
ReplyDeleteThe paper did a good job, and because City Hall was closed, couldn't get an answer from staff, as was mentioned, before the sh~t hit the fan, re the unauthorized expenses.
Instead of admitting that the expenditures were not pre-authorized, or explained to Council, Guerin attacked Maggie for speaking to the press, telling them to call the City.
Maggie personally called Phil Cotton, Jennifer Smith, and someone else, trying to get them to talk to NCT about the warrants list, as she hadn't been told.
Instead, Christy said Maggie was irresponsible and worse. She implied that Maggie should have directed the press to call Dan at his shop.
Sorry, Dan, your big moment got clouded. You made it political, by your publicity shots on TV, and at the event. And by your bitter diatribe at City Hall, calling the citizens and reporters, whiners "who don't do anything."
Is J.S.Meyer related to David Meyer?
ReplyDeleteCORRECTION: I believe a previous post got the PC candidate who didn't speak incorrect. It was Kevin Forrester who didn't speak, not Paul Van Slyke.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone catch in the guys letter that he didn't say Brown had served in Special Forces, but rather that he had an honorable military service. A big difference! What gives here?
ReplyDeleteanybody catch that Brown didn't say he did, but that the author of the letter gave his endorsment to brown and the author expected brown to get in?
ReplyDeleteYes, sorry, I was wrong about the candidates for the Planning Commission.
ReplyDeleteI misremembered their names. I did watch the Council Meeting. Actually, Kevin Forrester, a real estate attorney with a practice in Encinitas, did not attend the council meeting. He requested, according to today's Coast News, and according to the Council at last Wednesday's meeting "to meet with the individual members of the Council." So Jerome Stocks was actually inconsistent, stating at a prior meeting that Council had to hear all of the applications publicly, which has not been true in the past, but seems to be a PR event for Council, now.
However, I appreciated hearing Bruce Ehlers, and Paul Van Slyke. Van Slyke seemed decent, too. In this case, there were only two speakers, as Forrester was absent.
At past meetings, hours have gone by while the audience, there to speak to agenda items which had to be postponed for another hearing listened to many, many applicants for the youth commission, for example. That was not necessary as we didn't get any say in the selection process.
However, we would have much appreciated hearing more about Phil Cotton, and ask if he could be objective, give fresh direction and advice to Council, before he was selected in closed session, on a day when there was no Council Meeting, to be City Manager. Oh, Council, especially Christy Guerin heaped praise on him, when people asked about it, pulled his salary from the consent calendar. Only Maggie suggested that communciation could have been better on that, too.
We agree.
The deal to select Kevin Forrester was done long before any public presentations were heard. They were just a formality. He was handpicked.
ReplyDeleteYes, new hand picked planning commissioner. Her highness, most exaulted mayor in the world, Christy Guerin, told the new commissioner welcome to the team.
ReplyDeleteI know this is confusing, but according to what I saw on TV, the Council voted, Guerin, Bond and Dalager for Van Slyke, the landscaping guy.
ReplyDeleteJerome Stocks was the only one who voted for Kevin Forrester, the attorney.
Maggie voted for Ehlers.