Former Council member endorses Gomez

October 30, 2008 Letter to the Editor

Having lived in Barstow over 40 years, being a business owner, and retired Council Member, Mayor Pro Tem, I feel Barstow needs to wake up and make a mayoral change, to vote for Joe Gomez. Under Lawrence Dale’s terms as mayor we have: 1) Seen our streets disintegrate before our eyes; and told there is no money to repair them. 2) We want change and Lawrence Dale is using his same candidate statement, finances and promise of “leadership” as he has for his past two terms. We Need Change! 3) We don’t have a casino. I place the blame for this on Lawrence Dale because of his secret meetings with the financers of the project and with selected city staff; council members not kept informed of the possibility of a casino, and steps were taken that politically would not fly and we did not get a casino. 4) Lawrence Dale changed our wastewater contract in the middle of the term of the contract and it cost the city taxpayers almost $3 million dollars, (that we could have used for street repairs); Lawrence Dale is advising city staff to not put this contract out to bid for the best financial bid for the city taxpayers. What’s wrong here? 5) As a council we awarded a contract for a housing development that was to ensure Barstow had a golf course. I understand the economy is going south, but before this happened there was no progress and we now have no golf course. 6) We hear often from Lawrence Dale about the industrial park, this is why we need the grade separation where all street city monies are being earmarked for. As I recall, the council agreed to no more than $10 million with federal, state and county making funds available for construction. But, again, we have heard about the industrial park for over eight years and we still don’t see a viable business or building on this “Industrial Park,” yet we’re building a $32 million dollar grade separation to get there. 7) Some of Barstow’s residential areas have become eyesores, oft times owned by landlords who live out of town. Lawrence Dale is selective on how code enforcement enforces the violations, and renters of some of these residents are living in deplorable conditions because some of these residences are owned by Barstow people (what I sometimes refer to as good ol’ boys) who will not spend the money to and they do not have to comply with code regulations, building or otherwise. 8) Barstow’s appearance and streets are going downhill, people are leaving, and we need a change in leadership, vote for Joe Gomez for mayor.

Gloria Darling, Barstow