Sometimes history repeats itself in Oro Valley. The Az Star editorial re: Oro Valley blogster Art Segal (Friday, January 18, 2008) recalls a somewhat similar incident that occurred during the 2006 Oro Valley Council race. A website, “Advocate of Oro Valley” which both praised and criticized town decisions, was hounded out of existence by the very same person: Councilman Terry Parish.
Just like there was “no pressure” on blogger Art Segal to get his Political Committee papers, back in January 2006, when Parish found my website online and didn’t agree with everything, he contacted outside lawyers at the taxpayers’ expense to find out whether the “Advocate of Oro Valley” violated the law. Reason? The site lacked an “ownership line.”
As the website’s owner, I had declared myself a candidate for Council that prior month, and relinquished the website. There was no way I could campaign and spend hours editing at the same time.
One phone call might have settled the matter, but with great hoopla Parish publicly announced that I had violated the law. Headlines subsequently appeared in both in the Star (January 26, 2006) and in the Explorer (January 18 and 26, 2006.)
Parish, who also works for the Sheriff’s Department, said he was merely “upholding the law.”
It was harassment then and it’s harassment now.
11 comments:
Did I miss something? Did Art find out that it was Terry Parish who filed the complaint against him?
I have requested the town advise me who the "citizen" was that initiated the action against me. To date, I have not received a response.
The post here was Kathy Pastryk's letter.
I have no knowledge who filed the complaint against me, I don't want to infer it was Parish or anyone else.Should I find out, I will be happy to share it with our readers.
Art
Terry Parish made himself look bad by
trying to make an issue out of a non-issue!
Kathy, glad you posted this, others should know about the town's repeated attempts to silence others who may disgree with them.
Art I hope the town decides to comply with the law.
I believe you have the right to know who initiated the complaint.
Please do not drop your request.
Let's see how long it takes for you to get an answer?
How fast did the town clerk and town attorney act on the complaint?
Kathy's letter says that her website was "hounded out of existence by the very same person, Councilman Terry Parish." This implies that he is the "same person" who filed the complaint against Art.
That's why I asked if you found out that it WAS Parish who filed the complaint. Since you don't yet know who filed the complaint and this is just an assumption on Kathy's part, you might want to issue a statement to that effect.
Of course, if it DOES turn out to be Parish who filed the complaint, you can then point out that he stated publicly at the Jan. 16 council meeting that no one on the council knew anything about this complaint. This implies that HE knew nothing about it which of course would be a lie if he was the one who filed the complaint.
Even though I'm one of the people who suspects that it WAS Parish who filed the complaint (because this is certainly his M.O.), let's try not to make any accusations until we know for sure.
I am starting to doubt the existence of a written complaint.
And if there is or was a real complaint in writing, I wonder if that written complaint vanished.
Is everybody that busy at town hall that they don't have 1 minute to look up this simple information if it really does exist?
Sure.
Don't ever cross the imperial Town! If you go after anything they do against you...they will try to make you pay for it! For instance, when a nearby neighborhood was involved in a lawsuit about an unannounced zoning change, an unannouced interpretation of usage in favor of the developer, to the detriment of the neighborhood--residents of that neighborhood were REFUSED any responses from their elected representatives because of said litigation. What country are we living in?
Good afternoon, I like Victorian Cowgirl and the ethic she supports' "innocent until proven guilty." That polite suspicion has encouraged me to respond to her courage to not jump on the band wagon. I DID NOT complain and to those who may someday complain you'll want your complaint investigated too. Council people do not get involved in the day to day operations of the town that's why we didn't know about it until after the fact. For future reference I take responsibility for my actions and words that's why you can read my name on this blog. I'm sure that Art giggles with glee as a result this continued foolishness.
Terry,
For the record I did not say that you were the one who was the "anonymous" complainer.
But I still think you made yourself look bad when you raised the question of the website in the previous election.
But an attempt or the appearance of an attempt to shut down the public voice is not foolishness and you know it.
This can all be resolved by just
asking the town to release the name of the "anonymous" complainer.
In all fairness if it is not a council member or somebody connected to town business, then I would say we don't really need to know the name. But if it is a council member or somebody who deals with the town then this should be made public
Ms Coyote
I think the Az Star has this info. I was told they requested it in writing. I haven't made a request but believe the info is public info. Of course I could be wrong it has been known to happen ha ha
Terry,
Appreciate your responding to the blog. I wish more council members would speak up, as Barry G. did recently when he wrote a letter in support of this website and Art's freedom of speech.
Maybe it's just me...but I always equate silence with guilt.
If Ms. Coyote is correct in her assumption that the complaint has probably "vanished" then I think we'll all be back to assuming that it was filed by a member of the town staff or council. My reasoning is that the town wouldn't "misplace" that kind of evidence to cover the tracks of an ordinary citizen, but they WOULD do it to cover for one of their own.
So until the town releases this info, there is going to be continued suspicion.
I'll keep trying to remain objective in the meantime.
Me think's Ms Pastryk whines a bit much and it sure sounds to me like she is accusing Mr. Parish of the deed. The statement: "was hounded out of existence by the very same person: Councilman Terry Parish." doesn't leave too much room for an alternative conclusion.
As I have said before, I don't believe you can make a verbal complaint and have it acted upon. Therefore, it is my belief that there should be a written, signed complaint on file in the Town Attorny's office.
And just so nobody get's any ideas, I have already been declared innocent (and she is correct) by Victorian Cowgirl. Heaven knows I am not silent... :-)!!!
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