Councilmember Steve Solomon threatens three Oro Valley women. Part 3.

The following is the final segment of a 3-part narrative establishing a sequence of events concerning the unprofessional and threatening behavior of Oro Valley Town Councilmember Steve Solomon. Part 2 discussed the email threat he made to a citizen. Today, we reveal her response.

You can read Part 2 immediately beneath this article which also contains a link to Part 1.

She responded with a 4-page manifesto at his feeble attempt to intimidate her. Excerpts of her epic takedown are below:

“I’m entitled to draw my own conclusions. And it’s worth noting that many other residents have drawn the same conclusions and have stated so publicly…Also, an opinion cannot be defamatory. A qualified statement such as ‘My conclusion is…In my opinion…I think that…I suspect that…’ are not defamatory statements because they are opinions and are not stated as fact.”

“For someone who comes across as a know-it-all, I find it amusing that you do not know the legal definition of the word “slander." Allow me to enlighten you:

Slander is a false oral statement about someone made to a third party that harms someone’s reputation or standing within the community. Libel is a false written statement made to a third party that harms someone’s reputation or standing within the community.”

“In an [earlier] email you wrote me…you stated that “you and your opinions have absolutely no credibility in our community.” Now you’re claiming that my comments are so credible that they are harming your supposed stellar reputation. At this point, you’re arguing with yourself.”

“It is established law that the First Amendment protects citizens from government retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights. I was exercising my First Amendment rights when I asked you, an elected official, to explain your conflicting statements.”

“We expect our elected officials to act with integrity and honor. We expect our elected officials to treat us with respect and to not berate, belittle, and lecture us when we have a difference of opinion. And we expect to be allowed to question our elected officials without fear of retaliation and the threat of a lawsuit. After all, citizens do have the right to discuss public affairs with their elected officials.”

“Your behavior (lecturing citizens, belittling citizens, and now threatening them) is unbecoming for an elected official, and is especially hypocritical for one who ran on a ‘civility’ platform.”

“The situation is that I asked you a reasonable question about conflicting statements you made and when you were unable to defend those statements, you, in your infinite wisdom, decided that the best course of action was to threaten a citizen.”

What do you think?
We now have Solomon threatening one resident in an email and accosting two other residents in public. Is this the kind of behavior that you expect from your elected officials? Is it appropriate behavior? Do you believe that the mayor and sitting council will condemn his behavior? Remember that this is the same guy that Mayor Hiremath was crying and blubbering over when he had to bid him farewell when Solomon was initially voted out of office in 2012.

Councilmember Steve Solomon threatens three Oro Valley women. Part 2.

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.

Councilmember Steve Solomon threatens three Oro Valley women. Part 1.

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 will discuss the face-to-face threats that he made to two of these women. Part 2 will discuss the email threat that he made to a third woman.

In order to protect the privacy of the two women who were physically approached and who are currently weighing their options for dealing with this situation, LOVE is only going to report on what happened and not release the names of the “victims” at this time.

Solomon vs. the First Amendment
In all three cases, Solomon launched completely uncalled for and out-of-control attacks on all three women due to these women commenting that they believe that wealthy special interest campaign contributions to the current Town Council are influencing Council decisions in favor of these special interest donors. The women have a First Amendment right to state their opinions.

The public incidents
Accounts of these incidents included Solomon acting like a maniac with his face contorted and twisted up as he yelled verbally abusive comments and threatened to sue each woman for slander. He asserted that their comments equated to accusing him of the felony act of bribery. Of note is that no one has accused him or any other council member of doing anything illegal…just unethical.

Hence, we think Solomon doth protest too much. He sure isn’t acting like an innocent person. He’s acting like an animal whose been cornered.

Evidence of developer influence
All one has to do is to look at the Campaign Finance Reports from council elections in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2018 and compare it with Town Council meeting minutes to see that the wealthy developer donors have been getting all of their General Plan Amendments and rezoning requests approved despite vocal opposition from numerous well-organized residents who have repeatedly presented valid and well-researched arguments before this Council.

In every single instance, the Council sides with the developers and builders who have funded their campaigns. How can it be that the residents are wrong every. single. time? The law of averages does not support this notion.

What other conclusion can a person draw than to believe that there is a symbiotic relationship between developers and builders who need the Town Council to approve their development proposals and Town Council members who need those special interest donations in order to fund their campaigns.

Solomon puts the “mean” in demeanor
These three women are not the only Oro Valley residents who have made this observation. Numerous Oro Valley residents have made the same comments in Letters to the Editor and also when speaking at Town Council meetings over the past few years.

Not once has any Town Council member felt the need to retaliate by verbally accosting any of these residents or threatening them with lawsuits…until now…until Steve Solomon…and he has chosen to threaten only the women, despite numerous men having made the same observations. We’ll leave it up to our readers to determine why that might be.

LOVE has previously warned Oro Valley residents that Steve Solomon did not have the demeanor to be a council member as we had already witnessed his bullying behavior during his prior brief stint on council from 2010 to 2012. He hasn’t changed and his brutish and bullying behavior appears to have only gotten worse.

How have other Council members handled the same allegations?
As stated above, no other Town Council member has felt the need to retaliate by verbally accosting any of these residents or threatening them with lawsuits. Whenever the topic of special interest donations has come up in the past, the incumbents brush it off by simply stating that the accusations are not true. The only Council member who attempted to defend himself, was Councilmember Joe Hornat who stated with civility that there is nothing in it for him to cater to these special interests. While we appreciate his civility in addressing the topic, we disagree with his conclusions.

An inter-dependent relationship
LOVE will now explain exactly what’s in it for the council members.

Example: Bruce the Builder donates $10,000 to your 2014 campaign because he believes that he can count on you to represent him and his financial interests. If he’s right, Bruce the Builder will recoup that $10,000 donation many times over.

The well-financed councilmembers then vote to approve every development proposal, General Plan Amendment, and rezoning that Bruce the Builder requests over the next four years, allowing him to spread his cookie-cutter homes all over the land. Bruce the Builder’s $10,000 donation served him so well that he will now donate another $10,000 to each of the incumbents 2018 re-election campaigns. Wash, rinse, repeat.

That’s what’s in it for the council members. If they do the bidding of the wealthy special interests who funded their first campaign, those wealthy special interests will continue to fund every campaign. It’s an inter-dependent relationship.

This would explain why it’s the same wealthy members of the development community who donate substantial sums to the incumbents every election season. It’s not rocket science.

We just wonder why Steve Solomon is the only one who was so threatened by these comments that he felt it necessary to verbally assault and threaten two women (one of whom is elderly).

This is what he does best?
LOVE would like to remind our readers of some of the assertions that Steve Solomon made when he was running for Town Council in 2016.

• I am running for Town Council to bring civility, professionalism, collaboration, and positive forward momentum back to our community and Town Government. [Explorer Newspaper, June 8, 2016]

• Practicing civility and finding common ground are what I do best. [Facebook page, Solomon for Oro Valley Town Council, July 29, 2016]

We’d say that Solomon needs more practice. Does verbally assaulting people and threatening them with lawsuits for engaging in their First Amendment rights sound like the actions of someone who practices civility?

Part 2 will be published later this week and will discuss the threat that Steve Solomon made in an email to another Oro Valley resident.