Thursday, July 28, 2022

Guest View-Bill Rodman: Melanie Barrett’s Campaign Violation Accusations Are Baseless

The following Guest View is from council candidate and former council member Bill Rodman. Rodman is referring to last week’s Guest View of Melanie Barrett.
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I am more than disappointed in Oro Valley’s Vice Mayor Barrett who never misses an opportunity to tout her Law degree and yet has now accused me and my campaign three times with no basis for those accusations. It would seem that the ethical thing to do would have been to wait for the Town Clerk’s decision on whether the complaints were valid before putting them out to Take Back OV and the Love Blog as though they are valiBill d and have a base . It is very clear to me that her purpose in doing this and filing the complaints was only to try to get our residents to believe them with no evidence this close to the election. Please reread her words and you will see what I mean.

She has stated that my campaign has colluded with the Keep Oro Valley Strong PAC with absolutely no basis for that allegation. She says things like “If there is illegal collusion going on, then a serious campaign finance violation against state law has occurred.” Of course if that were true, it would be a violation, but there is no evidence that collusion took place nor could there be because it never occurred.

She makes a baseless statement that a one person marketing firm cannot have an effective firewall between my campaign and the PAC. There is no basis for that statement. I have never had any conversation or other contact with the PAC or its agent regarding any action or strategy to be taken by the PAC or my campaign. We have been more than careful to be sure to keep that firewall impenetrable.

She makes the statement that the amount of the donations makes any difference as to whether a violation has occurred. As a person with legal training, she should know better. It is either a violation or it is not regardless of the amount.

I would have expected better from our Vice Mayor.

Bill Rodman 
Council Candidate
FormerOro Valley Council Member