Candidates should not take special interest donations

On June 4, 2002, the City Council had the opportunity to pass a law that would have prohibited council members from voting on issues financially impacting their contributors.

Unfortunately, the council majority of Andy Fox, Dan Del Campo and Dennis Gillette voted against this law.

Special interests donating to councilmembers are troublesome. I am troubled that the Auto Mall, its dealers, employees and relatives, has donated over $10,000 to date to the campaign of Andy Fox. This is a lot of money.

They have also made significant contributions to Dan Del Campo, Dennis Gillette and Randy Hoffman. Could it be true that the Auto Mall wants a city handout for a parking structure to house their inventory?

Will it require zone changes and exceed our city’s building-height limits?

Andy Fox is disingenuous when he says he doesn’t take developer dollars. How could Fox forget that Selleck Properties was a developer after Andy voted to approve two hotels for Selleck Properties in Newbury Park?

Has Andy forgotten that Dale Ortman built the Target shopping center with his vote? Fox has taken money from other developers as well. The list goes on of Fox accepting developer and special interest contributions.

It simply is wrong for elected officials to accept monies from special interests and vote on their projects.

Debbie Gregory

Thousand Oaks