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