Over the past couple of months, LOVE has received information about three Oro Valley women who have received threats from Oro Valley Town Councilmember Steve Solomon. Part 1 (published on August 6th) discussed the face-to-face threats that he made to two of these women. (You can read it HERE)Today’s article discusses the email threat that he made to a third woman. LOVE is only going to report on what happened. We are not releasing the names of the “victims” at this time.
The threatening email incident
Councilmember Solomon voted to approve a storage facility at Steam Pump Village during the 3/15/17 Town Council meeting. A resident emailed Solomon questioning a comment he made during that meeting that a storage facility was more appropriate than a restaurant at Steam Pump Village because, “That site isn’t visible from Oracle Road. You don’t put a restaurant in a place that’s completely hidden.”
She wondered why he didn’t apply that same reasoning to the Town-owned Overlook Restaurant which is completely hidden from view. She asked, “Is it because a completely hidden restaurant is acceptable as long as it’s being subsidized with other people’s money?”
Solomon responded that the Overlook was more like a “destination” restaurant that gets “a large portion of their customers that are already at that location for other reasons,” whereas he felt that a stand alone restaurant needs high visibility to attract customers.
The resident responded, “I understand why you believe that the Overlook can survive despite being hidden from the road, but I don’t understand why you felt that a storage facility was a better choice than a restaurant in an area that is planned as a future dining/shopping area and walkable gathering space [Main Streets destination area]. In that scenario, it would not be a stand alone restaurant. The only conclusion I can draw is that it [his vote to approve a storage facility] had something to do with the $13,000 in campaign contributions from Diamond Ventures.”
At this point, Solomon went off the rails, claiming that she had accused him of “criminal activity, of accepting a bribe.” He continued, “This is a slanderous unsupported claim. It is a well-established legal principle that such a criminal accusation against a private person or public official is not protected speech and the accuser is subject to legal action.” He stated that the situation “may result in legal action against you.”
Why LOVE decided to make this story public
These repeated threats by Councilmember Solomon put a huge stain on the entire Town Council as Hiremath-Hornat-Snider-Waters endorsed his candidacy in the 2016 Town Council election and Rhonda Pina and Bill Rodman ran as a slate with Solomon in that election. They are all aware of the threats he has made and they have all remained silent. The fact that they have all kept this quiet was our first clue that we should make it public.
Additionally, Solomon has gone from making false accusations against Oro Valley residents from the dais to threatening them in emails to verbally accosting them in public. He appears to have a very fragile ego and appears to be emotionally unstable. What’s next? Physical assault? This is another reason that LOVE has decided that this story needs to be told.
Part 3 will be published tomorrow and will reveal the epic takedown that Solomon received from this resident in response to his threat of legal action.
