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Friday's Internet Edition, September 10, 2010.
Meredith says oversight committee playing ‘dirty politics’
Committee says Meredith reacting to draft never issued
By Rachael Ackerman
Herald Editor
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While Galt Mayor Andrew Meredith is saying a draft copy of a press release by the Liberty Ranch High School Oversight Committee is the “worst case” of dirty politics he has seen, the committee says Meredith is overreacting to something that never even happened.
Meredith issued a press release from Support Meredith on Oct. 19, saying he was responding to a press release put together by the oversight committee. In the release, Meredith not only characterizes the releases as a “political hit piece” but he also accuses Galt City Council candidates Fred Goethel and Tom Santillan, both members of the oversight committee, of using their positions on that committee to forward their bids for city council seats in the 2008 election.
According to Meredith, the oversight press release was drafted to “create the illusion of bad chemistry between the city of Galt and the high school district” in order to get Goethel and Santillan elected to city council.
“Committee members Tom Santillan and Fred Goethel are apparently willing to use their position on the oversight committee to better their election chances,” said Meredith. “The press release makes false claims about friction between the city and the district, even making the accusation the city of Galt is somewhat responsible for funding deficiencies associated with construction.”
Oversight Committee chair Len ReidReynoso issued a response on behalf of the committee on Tuesday, saying that the committee had planned to issue what he called a “blunt” press release to the public detailing certain problems the district was having with the city related to the completion of Liberty Ranch.
ReidReynoso said the committee would not now be publicly releasing the draft Meredith had seen and has, instead, issued an official press release detailing recent progress made between the city and the district in resolving issues that were hampering the Liberty Ranch project.
“Oddly, right after the first draft was circulated internally, the city of Galt began to work with the district and signed the necessary permits,” said ReidReynoso. “Although we still have several issues with the city of Galt, the need for the more blunt press release no longer existed.”
ReidReynoso denies that Goethel or Santillan ever had anything to do with the original draft of the release.
“The timing of the proposed press release was to be issued in early October,” said ReidReynoso. “I should point out that the members of the oversight committee who are running for city council were not involved in drafting the proposed press release.”
Goethel said, on Tuesday, that in his 30-plus years of working with the public his integrity has never been questioned.
“When it comes to politics, you can question my positions, but my integrity is not something that can be bought, sold or challenged,” said Goethel. “This is absolutely beyond the pale of dirty politics on Meredith’s part. He’s just trying to toss the election toward the candidates he prefers.”
Goethel went on to say that, had the proposed press release come before him as a committee member for a vote to approve, he would have recused himself from the vote as having a conflict of interest.
“I wasn’t given that chance,” said Goethel. “To date, I have not uttered a word, or made any comments.”
Santillan said he felt like Meredith’s press release was a way of diverting attention away from real problems the district is having working with the city.
“The Meredith press release is bogus. Neither Fred nor I had any knowledge of any press release,” said Santillan. “As a committee, we had voted to respond to the city because the city was delaying our project, and we had timelines to meet. We thought it was time to do something about that, and we have.”
Santillan characterized Meredith’s remarks about using the oversight committee to forward his own candidacy as very disappointing and utterly untrue.
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