Campaigning during City Council meetings raises concerns

I agree with not campaigning on the dais, if everyone complies with the same rules. Remember Measure H and all the people including the Mayor campaigning against the measure during council meetings. My concern was this sign shown above, it was obstructing seniors or handicapped residents in the Senior Citizen Mobile Home Park. The Mayor claims a vandal put it there, what a clever vandal to put it near a future precinct and a few hundred seniors, sure didn't help my cause. Joe

August 19, 2008 - 4:59PM By Aaron Aupperlee, city editor BARSTOW — His comments were not 100 percent related to the agenda item at hand, but Barstow resident Bill Schnittger wanted to make his voice heard. Frustrated after hearing what he thought was campaigning during the City Council meeting Monday, Schnittger asked Council members who are running for office to grab a soap box and set up someplace else. “These meetings are to conduct the business of the city, not the up-coming election,” he said at the meeting. “This dais is not for political speeches.” During the meeting, Council member Joe Gomez, who is challenging Mayor Lawrence Dale for his seat in November, brought up the campaign and asked Dale to sign a code of fair campaign practices and commit to a clean campaign. A short exchange between the two followed, prompting Schnittger to submit a request to speak. The Council’s code of ethics, read before each meeting, states that the decision made during the meeting will be for the benefit of Barstow and not for personal gain. Dale said that clause means that council members making statements to advance their candidacy is out of order. “Campaigning by anyone on that dais is wrong,” Dale said. He said he has requested that the Council address the issue of campaigning during meetings at a later Council meeting. Gomez, who used the “Business of the Council” portion of a past Council meeting to announce that he was running for mayor, said he did not think his comments on Monday amounted to campaigning, but rather a public safety issue. Gomez was concerned that a campaign sign for Dale was blocking a sidewalk. Dale said the sign was placed there by vandals, and it had been removed. Nathaniel Pickett, also challenging for the mayor’s seat, said public funds are being used when a council member campaigns during a meeting. “I don’t believe it’s appropriate,” he said. “I think it’s the wrong venue.” Whether the council chambers was the right venue or not, Gomez would still like Dale to sign the fair campaign code. The document requires candidates to conduct their campaigns in a honest, open and fair manner, outlawing negative attacks, slander and other unethical practices. Gomez said he planned to sign it and encouraged other candidates running for office to do the same. Other candidates have not yet been presented with the form. “I think people are tired of campaigns that are dirty or that are not really discussing the issues,” Gomez said. Dale said he did not yet know if he would sign the pledge but stressed that dishonesty and unethical practices would not be an issue.