Wednesday, June 17, 2020

The Solomon Chronicles. Part 3. Who funded Solomon’s 2016 Town Council campaign?

With the Town Council election on the horizon, LOVE will be presenting a series of articles entitled, “The Solomon Chronicles,” highlighting the abysmal record of Councilmember Steve Solomon who is running for re-election. This weekly series will highlight his 4-year record of incivility and his interdependent relationship with local developers. This series was written by a LOVE contributor and contains a synopsis of previous LOVE articles plus new information.
- - -

Solomon plays hide and seek with the voters
The following information was obtained from Solomon’s Campaign Finance Report covering the period from June 1 through August 18, 2016. Of note is that this report was due between August 19-26 and Solomon submitted it to the Town Clerk on the very last day at the very last minute…August 26th at 4:45 PM.

One can only assume that he was attempting to withhold this information from the public for as long as possible, knowing that local media would report on it and he didn’t want Oro Valley voters to know that his campaign was entirely funded by wealthy special interests.

Another indicator that he was trying to hide his donor funding came during the August 16, 2016 candidate forum when the candidates were asked how they financed their campaign. Rather than admitting that his campaign was funded by wealthy developers and builders, Solomon answered that his campaign was funded by people "who share my values."
 
Solomon’s 2016 Town Council election donations

HSL Properties                       $17,912.
Venture West                              1,000.
Peter Fasseas (Developer)         1,000.
Diamond Ventures                      1,900.
David Godlewski (SAHBA)            145.
Realtors of Arizona PAC             1,000.
SAHBA PAC                                  250.

TOTAL                                    $23,207.

Solomon received no campaign funds from Oro Valley residents
Of note is that only one contribution ($145.00) “technically” came from an Oro Valley resident, but this resident also happens to be the Director of the Southern Arizona Homebuilders Association. All other donations (totaling $23,000) came from individuals who do not even live in Oro Valley!

Questions to ponder
• Why did no Oro Valley residents contribute to Steve Solomon’s campaign?
• Why were developers and builders so driven to get him elected?
• Why was Solomon so compelled to keep his campaign donors hidden from voters?


NOTE: A $5000. donation from Jim and Vicki Click was included with the HSL donations because they have a cross-donating agreement with HSL on other matters.
- - -

The Solomon Chronicles: Part 4. “Conflict of Interest” will be published next Wednesday.