Around Town
Voters, do your homework
by Pat Orr
Way back, before anyone filed to run for Town Council, I warned you to watch the future candidates to see who supported them and who gave them campaign donations.
Recently, there have been some unsettling revelations about candidate Richard Bunck’s background and belief system as described in a recent Daily Press article.
Mr. Bunck has already sent out one campaign mail piece, estimated to cost at least $4,500 and sources tell me he has made a $10,000 purchase of radio air time for campaign commercials. This seems like a sizable budget for a first time campaigner who hasn’t held any visible fundraisers. Perhaps, like many, he’s spending his own money on all of this — we won’t know until campaign spending reports are filed — but if not, from where or who else is he getting substantial support?
On the other hand, candidate Tom Piper admits that his self-made sign has just about cleaned out his campaign coffers. Mr. Piper, a vocal advocate of local marijuana dispensaries, has proudly proclaimed that he has “smoked pot for 40 years,” which I presume is the reason he feels his supporters need his name spelled out in 3-foot letters to identify him.
It’s always good to know the needs of your constituents.
As with all the candidates for Town Council, or any office, examine the names, if any, of the local folks who endorse these people. Do your homework. What have they done for Apple Valley and what will they do for it — or to it — in the future?
Conflict of interest discussion a flash from the past
The topic of elected officials doing business with the entity they serve or are elected to being a conflict of interest came up at a Town Council candidate forum recently. I wasn’t present at the forum unfortunately, but this whole issue is a “flash from the past.”
There was a definite “anti-business bias” on the part of some previous Town Council members who alternately attacked the Chamber of Commerce, its members, the Business Improvement District and its members and then focused on individual business owners and their “undue” influence over town politics.
Over the years, several council members have been business owners and, yes, some of their businesses do business with the town. Does this present a conflict? Only if the business was transacted due to unfair preference and wasn’t cost efficient.
In a small town, it makes sense that business owners would be some of your leading citizens and that they would also gravitate towards leadership positions in social, service and government organizations. Thank God for it, or we would only have government employees running everything.
No one seems to complain about the conflict of a public employee, either active or retired, serving in a capacity funded by the same tax dollars of which they are expected to be good “stewards.” Can you see a retired public employee honestly debating how to trim government employee pension costs in the entity they now serve as an elected official?
Unions, particularly in schools, like to put a union member up for election in a district nearby. That way you always have a “friend” on the board.
So until we ban anyone who gets a government paycheck or retirement check from serving on a publicly funded board or council, I would say the conflict of interest concern regarding business owners is a moot point. Besides, government agencies are notoriously “slow pays.” If you can get rich quick doing business with them, God bless you.
Pat Orr is a local business owner, community volunteer and political junkie.