03-08-09, Commentary by Barry Allen, Publisher of the Vanguard Weekly News, “BIAS ON THE DAIS”

Standby. The attack dogs are being unleashed against some of the candidates for public office. We are hearing from people that are desperate about losing the election. If you speak against Frank Quintero you are accused of electioneering. Frank accused me of that because I challenged his statements to voters during the candidates’ forums. CM Starbird spoke to that on the Larry Zarian Forum when he said there was disinformation being circulated by the candidates. Quintero said we have a healthy $450,000,000 in reserves while CCM Najarian made it $53M in General Fund reserves. Starbird didn’t offer the correct amount. At Council meeting Mike Mohill brought documents from the City Clerk‘s office that he showed me and others. These documents showed that Quintero benefited from a contract of almost $1,000,000 for his business. Quintero filed a Statement of Economic Interest (SEI) for CY 2003 indicating he had ZERO income from Alliance for Education in 2003 and he closed his business. That form is filed under penalty of perjury.

Mohill showed me a copy of the SEI form and a check (above) in the amount of $120,251.70 payable to Alliance for Education dated 04/30/2003 drawn by the City of Glendale.

Fortunately we have courageous people that stand up and speak out to raise the public awareness. Some people may object to Mohill‘s presentation style but he is there on the front lines speaking for us all while living on Social Security as he stated Tuesday.

Herbert Molano stands up for all of our rights and has rightfully and lawfully challenged issues that can only be heard and decided by the Courts, yet CCM Weaver makes those challenges the mainstay of his existence.

Margaret Hammond came out against the high salaries and overtime paid to the City Employees.

When Wendy Gruel first ran for LA City Council she was accused of being Jewish and a Lesbian. She is not Jewish and is married with a family. Here in Glendale you have desperate candidates digging up issues that occurred in the last century. Old stories. None of which have any merit in this election. Those issues have nothing to do with the solutions for the fiscal mess this City is in, something that started 8 years before the economic meltdown which has not affected the way Glendale does business.

I will so state that, contrary to Frank Quintero challenging the messenger, I do not work for Bruce Philpott or Bob Yousefian. I maintain a separation between the functions and guiding documents of a non-profit and my personal life. I will tell you this: I am conversant with more than 50% of the candidates, some of whom I have supplied public records, answered technical questions or have referred them to sources for their campaigns as I have had experience running campaigns and in the case of Glendale, have studied many public documents.

BARRY ALLEN