Desert
Hot Springs
Election Appeal
Vicious Campaign Rumors
The campaign season is in full swing, full of
rumors and innuendo. Today as we made our Saturday rounds through
town, we heard some real humdingers coming out of the Mayer Stephens
campaign and one or two from those seeking to recall Stephens from
office.
Some people would say the best way to deal with
rumors is to ignore them. And while we do not support Mary Stephens
and our friends have told us that we should simply let false rumors
about her go uncorrected, we do not agree. Fair is fair. We're
sorry, but these rumors against Mary Stephens must be addressed.
The first rumor we heard was a vicious attack
on Mary Stephens. Specifically, it says that Stephens agreed to pay
former City Manager Jerry Hanson $588,000 cash compensation in 2004.
This is simply false. The salary Mary Stephens agreed to pay Jerry
Hanson in 2004 was only $322,000 cash.
The other rumor we found particularly unfair, again, leveled against
Mary Stephens, was that she agreed to a consulting agreement with
Jerry Hanson that would pay him $15,000 a month ($180,000 a year)
through 2008 and that required him to work only 1 day a week.
The consulting agreement Stephens signed with
Jerry Hanson was indeed for $15,000 a month ($180,000 a year) and
through 2008. But it required Hanson to work 2 days a week and not
just 1 day a week.
As you can see, these rumors only blur the
truth. They are designed to make Mayer Stephens look really bad when
in reality she looks only very bad for the deals she engineered with
Jerry Hanson.
Sources: The Desert Sun
& The Press Enterprise
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