SAN BRUNO PARK SCHOOL DISTRICT MEASURE O BOND SCAM DEFEATED ...... STUDENTS AND THE GOOD GUYS WIN, CARPETBAGGERS AND THE BAD GUYS LOSE.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 11:39 PM by Bill Baker, J.D.
Editor and Publisher, The San Bruno Beacon
NO ON MEASURE O supporters and voters. We won!
I would like to take this opportunity to dedicate the NO ON MEASURE O victory to my former San Bruno City Council colleague Chris Pallas, who co-signed the ARGUMENT AGAINST MEASURE O with me. For many decades, Chris Pallas served the citizens of San Bruno on the San Bruno City Council, as a Councilman and Vice Mayor and on the San Bruno Park School District (SBPSD) Board as a Trustee. Chris has spent most of his adult life making San Bruno a better place for all San Bruno residents to live in. The contributions that Chris Pallas has made to the City of San Bruno and the San Bruno Park School District will never be forgotten.
With all precincts reporting the final tally for San Bruno Park School District (SBPSD) Measure O is:
55% Approval required:
Yes - 1,866 / 50.8%
No - 1,809 / 49.2%
The San Bruno Park School District's ethics challenged Superintendent Hutt, who wrote the laughable argument supporting Measure O, tried and failed to connive San Bruno's voters into approving the $40,000,000 Measure O Bond scam using the following specious ploys:
1). Hutt and the rubber stamp SBPSD Board hired Dale Scott and Company; political consultants who advertise that they possess "political savvy" and bring "Grassroots Campaign Skills/Social Media Savvy" to political campaigns. From a strategic and tactical standpoint, the YES ON MEASURE O campaign was a disaster. It was clear that the people running the YES ON MEASURE O campaign had little or no idea about how grassroots politics works; they had little or no concept as to how social media works and they produced some of the worst campaign fliers and signs I have ever seen in the history of San Bruno politics. To top it off, they did just about everything a political campaign can do to alienate the voters. As I see it, if politics was a boxing match and Dale Scott and Company was a boxer; they would get knocked out a minute or two into the first round.
2). Hutt and the rest of the "brain trust" running the YES ON MEASURE O Campaign raised what may be as much as $50,000 to fund the YES ON MEASURE O Campaign from many of the very same contractors employed by the SBPSD, being paid with SBPSD taxpayer money. This raised questions as to whether or not this money being paid into the YES ON MEASURE O campaign by these contractors constituted kickbacks from the contractors? This is an issue that we will be taking a close look at in the coming weeks and months.
3). Even when he was confronted with the facts, Hutt continued to deny any wrongdoing in the diversion of $12,000,000 of capital projects money and the new diversion scandal that has erupted in the SBPSD during the past month involving the SBPSD's diversion of capital projects redevelopment money that the SBPSD has received from the City of San Bruno.
Although Measure O lost, the reasons why the specious Measure O bond measure was able to score as many 'yes' votes as it did are that: (1). the YES ON MEASURE O campaign spent what may be as much as $50,0000 on their campaign; (2). had major endorsements and support from the usual suspects in the press who as expected put the profit driven, self serving interests of their advertisers and the broken status quo above the best interests of their readers; (3). flooded the mailboxes of voters with 4 or 5 mailings of YES ON MEASURE O fliers; (4). trashed San Bruno's streets with their ugly YES ON MEASURE O signs; (5). employed several specious out of town / out of State companies to do their political dirty work.
The YES ON MEASURE O supporters had every advantage a campaign could have and they still lost. The reason they lost is that they had little or no credibility and the people in San Bruno did not appreciate SBPSD Hutt's attempts to manipulate them with his slick, carpetbagging political consultants; deceitful answers to important questions; and attempt to buy their vote with the money paid into the YES ON MEASURE O campaign by the contractors being paid with SBPSD taxpayer money.
A word to SBPSD Superintendent Hutt. Mr. Hutt, you have brought carpetbaggers and other outside interests into San Bruno, who are not stakeholders in San Bruno's future, in an attempt to manipulate and deceive San Bruno's residents into handing over $40,000,000 of their hard earned money to perpetuate your specious schemes. You have failed. In my opinion, you have also violated whatever level of trust that might still remain between you and the people of San Bruno. We are not suckers, we are not fools and do not appreciate be treated as such. Mr. Hutt, you should give serious consideration to resigning as the SBPSD Superintendent and returning to your home in Redding, California or wherever else you call home these days.
I have now been involved in San Bruno politics for approximately 25 years. During those years, the good people of San Bruno have allowed me to win almost all of the political campaigns in San Bruno that I have either led or helped lead. I am honored.
