To the Editor:
A Grateful Mom wants to say THANK YOU to the person who found my letter a week ago this Monday and made sure it would get back to me. Your kindness restored my faith in people. Thank you again…
A grateful mom
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Short note to Roy Payne and Brian Sipes; please boys, give it a rest!
Dorothy Lynch
Texas

To the Editor:
My husband and I moved to El Dorado Estates two years ago with retirement in mind. We thought that in a few years, we could retire and travel (our children live on the East coast.) If Measure F passes, we will not be able to retire at all. All we see is the proposition of condo conversion taking our retirement monies. If we opt to rent, we could be living in a mobile park with some of the highest rents in California. How would we be able to retire and travel then? The owners talk about low rent options. This is a one-time offer to very low and extremely low income residents. Because my husband and I both work, this is not an option for which we can participate. We need both of our incomes currently to pay the rent. We are now in our 60’s. If Measure F passes, we could be working into our 80’s. This is not the future we anticipated. I hope we stay healthy, because getting sick would not be an option either. Fillmore residents; please get out and vote for us. Say NO to Measure F. You could be in the same situation yourself someday. Help save our homes. Thank you in advance.
Dave and Tricia Harms
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Letter to Fillmore Voters
I just want to remind all you voters here in Fillmore to be sure to get out and vote next Tuesday. Even though there is just the one measure to vote on, it is very important to all the senior citizens living in El Dorado Mobile Home Park.
In a recent straw poll taken at the park, every single resident who voted indicated he/she does not want to purchase his lot.
If you have any question as to how you should vote on this measure, just read the seven plus pages of the full text of measure F in your sample ballot and it will become quite clear how you should vote. You can be very certain the owner of the park paid some law firm a great deal of money to hand craft this measure so everyone would know exactly what this proposal will accomplish.
So please take a few minutes Tuesday and go by your polling place and give the El Dorado seniors your support.
Ralph Rees
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Last week, Bob Stroh, in his typical hypocritical and manure-like fashion, accused Martin Farrell of writing thirty editorial “attacks” against the current city council since last December. Mr. Stroh failed to tell you that during the same time period Stroh has written twenty-two letters to the editor (during the same time period I have written twelve letters to the editor). Most of Stroh’s 22 letters are focused on attacking the previous city council and administration and trying to shift or deflect the blame for the incompetence of the current city council. Stroh accuses Mr. Farrell of engaging in the very same kind of malicious negative attacks that Stroh and others engaged in for 2-3 years leading up to the 2008 council election.
Stroh also accuses Mr. Farrell of exaggerations because Mr. Farrell stated there would be mass firings at City Hall and multi-million dollar lawsuits against the city because the voters approved Measure I. In response to Stroh’s accusations, one Gazette blogger wrote “Stroh how disingenuous can you be?? The atmosphere there with the new city council was so bad, some very good employees quit. Think of the combined years, knowledge and expertise that were lost to the town of Fillmore. No, technically they didn’t fire anyone, did they Bob....” It does not take a brain surgeon to figure out that the mass exodus of employees was related to the veiled 2008 campaign tactics employed by Brooks, Washburn, Walker, Westling, Creagle, Sipes and Stroh. With regards to the costs of Measure I, the jury is still out. The costs to implement Measure I are still accumulating…about $150,000 to date.
Speaking of Measure I, it is my understanding that the City is now faced with revising its Housing Element to plan for increased housing density of 20 or 30 houses per acre throughout the City in order to make up for Measure I which reduced the density in North Fillmore to 5 houses per acre. Stroh, did you Walker, Washburn, Westling, Brooks, Creagle, and Sipes tell the voters that when you were advocating for Measure I? Incompetence, hypocrisy or deceit?
One of Stroh’s most recent attempts to try and polarize the community occurred on August 6, 2009 when he wrote a letter to the editor stating “I was surprised that the preliminary city budget report went unreported by the local news media. I was not surprised by the report’s conclusions. In spite of the rosy projections given by the last city manager and finance director just a few months ago, even the most casual observer of the state of our economy and the housing crisis should have foreseen the trouble we find ourselves in. Many did. A year ago people (including Jamey Brooks, Gayle Washburn and then council member Patti Walker) were urging the past council to exercise restraint in handing out pay raises for top managers to no avail. Now we are told that at our current rate of spending we will be out of money in eighteen months; the cost-cutting will have unfortunate consequences for many people”. Contrary to Stroh’s statements, the city budget is balanced, the last city manager and finance director were correct, and the City has almost $5.3 million in reserves! Regarding council restraint for pay raises, no restraint has been exercised to date by the new council and management pay raises of 6% to 20% were recently granted by the newly elected city council…hypocritical?
Back in February 2009 Stroh tried to upset the community by exaggerating the costs of the new sewer plant and had to be corrected by Public Works Director Bert Rapp because Stroh had overstated the costs of the new sewer plant by $16 million…more than a slight exaggeration on Stroh’s part. Stroh continues to try and polarize the community and to shore up and cover up the 2008 campaign misstatements about the new sewer plant, management salaries and the stability and solvency of the city budget that were made by the newly elected council to gain public office.
Stroh keep shoveling the horse manure and pretty soon you will be covered in it.
Roy Payne