Chamber of Politics?-----Stanckiewitz, Robles cry foul, claim chamber news letter becoming too political
By Brad Jones For CNG
The Blue Mountain Outlook continues to be at the center of controversy in the Grand Terrace election as candidates head down the home stretch in the race for a seat on city council.
Mayoral candidate Walt Stanckiewitz admonished the chamber for becoming “super political” and blasted the city for having too much control over the editorial content of the Blue Mountain Outlook.
Council candidate Sylvia Robles filed a formal complaint to the California Fair Political Practices Commission last month regarding public funds paid to the Grand Terrace Area Chamber of Commerce and the alleged use of the city’s bulk mailing permit to distribute the Blue Mountain Outlook, the chamber’s monthly newsletter.
While the local Chamber of Commerce is an independent, non-profit organization, it did receive public funding of $870 per month from city coffers for producing and mailing the BMO Blue Mountain Outlook.
Chamber of Commerce president Sally McGuire, who is also running for mayor, issued a statement by email to the Grand Terrace City News Monday that said the chamber received a formal written complaint from the FPPC on Saturday.
“At this time, the Board of Directors of the Grand Terrace Area Chamber of Commerce has not had the opportunity to review the complaint. We will review the complaint and address the issues directly with the FPPC and respond accordingly,” McGuire wrote in the email.
“Before responding to any other accusations or statements made by candidates Stanckiewitz and Robles with regard to the Grand Terrace Area Chamber of Commerce, Blue Mountain Outlook newsletter and the relationship with the City of Grand Terrace, we believe it is in the best interest of the Grand Terrace Area Chamber of Commerce and its members, to allow the FPPC time to review the allegations and make a determination based on the actual facts,” the statement read.
McGuire wrote in an email that “the chamber has had its own bulk mail permit for many years and has not been using the city’s bulk mail permit.”
Stanckiewitz began questioning the fairness of a “city-sponsored publication” last spring. He claims there is a potential conflict of interest for elected officials whose photos, quotes or articles, appeared in the chamber newsletter, because the newsletter was receiving public funding from the city.
“I raised it as a conflict of interest issue,” Stanckiewitz said. “This newsletter is mailed to every household in the city and it’s mailed under the city’s mass mailing permit,” he said.
Since then, the city changed the wording of its contract with the chamber so that the allocated funds would not be tied directly to specific funding for the Blue Mountain Outlook, but rather to funding for non-specific services and events, Stanckiewitz said.
In July, the Blue Mountain Outlook changed its banner from “The Official News Publication for The Grand Terrace Area Chamber of Commerce & The City of Grand Terrace” to “The Official News Publication for The Grand Terrace Area Chamber of Commerce,” striking all reference to the city.
“They (the city) rewrote the contract. We no longer pay directly for the newsletter,” he said. “They removed the banner line. We conveniently pay the same amount, and in some instances we may even be paying more to chamber, but we are calling it services provided.”
Stanckiewitz blamed past city council decisions and “sloppy” city management for not checking out the legal consequences of approaching the chamber to include the reference to the City of Grand Terrace in the banner.
“No one ever bothered to look at the ramifications of a city-sponsored communications vehicle — a mass mailing — and what that means to elected officials,” Stanckiewitz said. “If they have pictures in it, if they are quoted in it or write a story in it, for elected officials, it becomes a conflict of interest.”
Stanckiewitz further accused the city of having too much influence — even to the point of censorship — over what was printed in the Chamber of Commerce newsletter over the years.
While it is common for other cities to provide funding to their respective local Chamber of Commerce for various services and events, most chamber publications are referred to as newsletters — not newspapers. Past newspaper readership surveys have indicated that many Grand Terrace residents perceive the Blue Mountain Outlook, which is printed on newsprint and looks like a community newspaper, to be an independent newspaper when, in fact, the publication is a monthly Chamber of Commerce newsletter.
Stanckiewitz said the Chamber of Commerce has also crossed the line of fairness by soliciting profiles of candidates and publishing them in the Blue Mountain Outlook.
Robles issued a statement that indicated she is not concerned about whether or not the chamber favors or endorses certain candidates, but that the chamber should not being accepting tax dollars to fund its newsletter.
“I am and have been concerned about the use of taxpayer money to fund the Blue Mountain Outlook. The paper touts itself as the ‘official newspaper of Grand Terrace.’ It uses the bulk mailing permit of the City,” she wrote in the email.
“There seems to be excessive collaboration between the City and the GT Chamber.”
“When government uses taxpayer money as a means to outspend and out influence other candidates with more limited resources, it is a serious breach. The city-funded Blue Mountain Outlook goes to every household in Grand Terrace. Candidates running for office do not enjoy that same advantage. This is the United States of America and allowing our local government to use taxpayer money to promote political races is plainly wrong. Disguising it as chamber newsletter is criminal.”
“The City of Grand Terrace is responsible for what type of activities it funds. I believe there has been a long history of the City of Grand Terrace over-reaching its boundaries. What I mean by this, is simply that one particular previous city manager has had a strong desire to control the levers of government to usurp the role of the voters,” she stated in the email.
”Residents of Grand Terrace work hard and look to credible news sources for balanced information on the issues and the candidates. The Blue Mountain Outlook is masquerading as the official voice of Grand Terrace. They are not. My action with the FPPC is to define once and for all the proper boundary between the City and the Grand Terrace Chamber,” Robles wrote in the email.
“The banner of the BMO was changed in July at the request of the City of Grand Terrace when we entered into a new agreement,” McGuire said in the email. “In my opinion, the newsletter has not become more political. For many years prior to my being involved with the chamber, they have been providing candidate information and holding candidate forums during local elections.”
Darcy McNaboe, who sits on the city’s planning commission, who is a chamber board member and is also running for a seat on city council, refused comment about the FPPC complaint when contacted by the Grand Terrace City News on Monday.
However, when it was pointed out that photos of both her and McGuire were published on the front page of both the June and July editions of the Blue Mountain Outlook, McNaboe pointed out that she was not listed as a city council candidate in the photo captions.
“I don’t know where the politics are involved with someone who is a community volunteer — being out doing volunteer work for which they are not compensated and then happen to show up in the paper (chamber newsletter) that depicts volunteers doing good in the community. I guess I just don’t see the issue or the conflict there,” McNaboe said.
“It would seem to me that we would encourage more people to do those kinds of things without attacking them and saying they are doing something wrong,” she said.
McGuire and McNaboe said the chamber is not endorsing any candidates in the upcoming election. However, some candidate profiles were recently published in the Blue Mountain Outlook.
McNaboe’s company, Village Enterprises, has been paid for graphic design work on the Blue Mountain Outlook, but McNaboe stated in a release that she was not a chamber board member at the time. McNaboe is also a city planning commission board member.
