Latest letters from readers continue discussion about whether city council candidate Porsche Middleton should have been allowed to use her title of Planning Commissioner on the upcoming election ballot.
Middleton deserves to use her title on ballot
[RE: Candidate wins legal fight with City of Citrus Heights over election dispute; Aug. 30] Why would the Citrus Heights leadership block Porsche Middleton, member of their Planning Commission running for City Council, from using her commissioner title in her Nov. 6 ballot ID? Judge Allen Sumner waded through the bureaucratic and legalistic arguments to thoughtfully rule that Ms. Middleton’s Planning title “tells voters what they need to make an informed decision.” Precedent not withstanding, the City Clerk and a cabal of Citrus Heights competing candidates tried their best to minimize her professional and political role.
An accomplished engineer and voice for a modernizing Citrus Heights, Ms. Middleton clearly is a fresh civic and social force to be reckoned with that the Citrus Heights establishment coldly attacks. A peer Planning Commissioner, Tim Schaefer, goes so far to insinuate that Ms. Middleton “perjured” herself claiming that her Commission work did not require 20 hours/week, confessing he only worked 2-3 hours! Who truly deserves recognition? …Having worked with Ms. Middleton, I can attest to her substantial preparatory and followup thought and active role reaching out to key players in projects such as the Bearpaw Apartments and the Mitchell Farms Development. Citrus Heights residents have a genuine and exciting choice between bureaucratic business-as-usual and a proud and creative future.
-William Bronston, Carmichael
Negative letter about Middleton should not have been published
[RE: Letters; Sept. 1, 2018] I find it reprehensible that your publication would print a letter that essentially accuses a member of the Citrus Heights Planning Commission of perjury, with nothing to back up that assertion except, apparently, personal animus. Porsche Middleton won the right to use “Citrus Heights Planning Commissioner” as her ballot designation in open court. But another member of the commission, Tim Schaefer, chose to continue the attack in your publication with a thinly-veiled assertion of perjury.
He’s free to believe whatever he wants to, but your publication is under no obligation to print unfounded and groundless innuendo. I admit to a certain curiosity about why Mr. Schaefer chose to continue the attack on Ms. Middleton’s rights. I suppose I could assert it’s because she’s an African American woman–but that, too would be unfounded and groundless innuendo.
Gregg Fishman, Sentinel reader
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