In what has to be the most bizarre turn of events I could ever imagine in a Simi Valley election, I have discovered a website dedicated to revealing news about Bob Huber’s City Council career in a contradictory tone versus his current campaign messages. The site appears to be assembled over the course of several weeks and probably a work in progress. The website’s RSS feed, meant for syndication of content in search engines and news readers, contains my domain name (votesimivalley.com) in several of the posts, putting it on my radar and setting off alarm bells in my head.
The content of the site varies widely, but the common theme is Bob Huber. Much of the content goes back as far as 1980 and attempts to contradict statements Candidate for Mayor Bob Huber has made either in press releases or in response to inquiries from me for VoteSimiValley.com. For example, an article from The Simi Valley Enterprise newspaper in 1982 covers Simi Valley City Council Members traveling to Sacramento in response to budget cuts to city budgets. The caption below the photocopied news clipping reads as follows.
Major Exaggerations – Financial Leadership 3
Bob Huber in his 2010 campaign likes to say that he already was a “leader” for the city through a financial crisis like today’s. This story shows everyone else on the Simi Valley City Council got involved – except him.
Further down the archive, readers will find a photocopied article from The Enterprise in 1980 where the City Council votes for a 9% pay increase. An article right beside it discusses a pay increase for the City Manager and the City Council, with the following caption from the author:
Major Exaggerations (An Ongoing Series) – City Budget
Hey, didn’t Bob Huber say in early 2010 campaign materials that the City struggled to balance its budget due to dealing with the impacts of the passage of Proposition 13?
Seems they had enough to give everyone a raise, including the City Manager.
Do you have questions about the origins of the Shop Simi Valley First program? Apparently, so does Mr. Newspaper Clippings. One of the earlier posts on the website shares an article regarding Bob Huber’s remarks in the City Council about Simi Valley being a great place to shop with this caption below the photocopied article from the newspaper:
This was the start of the first Shop Simi Valley program. It is interesting to note that even though it was suggested that the Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce be engaged with the process, Bob Huber insisted that only the City drive the program – and therefore only taxpayer dollars would be expended in the process. That’s not quite the “listening” we hear about during campaign time.
The commentary goes on, from comparisons to past moves up against campaign points like E-Verify, to unusual stories about office curtains being installed by outside vendors. Huh? Yeah, that’s there too.
Yes, you’ll get the link… But I gotta ask, what the hell is this election turning in to? And who has this kind of time?
I will be requesting comments from both Bob Huber’s and Steve Sojka’s campaigns.
http://bobhuberleaks.tumblr.com/
From their About page:
We hope to open sunshine on the candidate Bob Huber for Mayor of Simi Valley. We are a group of concerned Simi Valley residents, who wish to retain anonymity for fear of employer retaliation.
To submit a document for public consumption, or for questions or comments, email to BobHuberLeaks@gmail.com.
Wow. So much for Mr. Sojkas pledge not to use negative campaigning. Not much meat on those bones. If only he would spend the same amount of time actually saying something rather than grasping at straws.
I have recently noticed
1. He upgraded his website to look very similar to Mr. Hubers
2. He changed his signs as the design was poor on the original ones and you could not read the word Mayor clearly like Mr. Hubers
3. More and more of Mr. Hubers signs are vanishing like magic.
I guess desperate times call for desperate measures.
Lets hope for some substance soon from the guy who has already spent 12 years on the council. So far all I see is weak sauce.
I find the articles fascinating, and it’s difficult to argue with black-and-white print. What is “wrong and biased” about the fact that Mr. Huber was on a City Council that approved 9% and 10% raises to management one year apart? Looks like he voted to approve them, too, unless he missed the meetings. Those are huge, huge raises, and those were very difficult economic times.
This is a disgusting display of petty behavior from bitter supporters of a desperete candidate. Mike should make it his mission to expose who is behind this embarassment.
I have to agree with Greg. The presentation is unconventional but the content is very revealing. I don’t think it is a “slam” on Huber but it does force the reader to look at things from a different view point. Wrong and biased doesn’t apply here. They are actual publications from the past.
Amy: I’m trying to do that. The site uses a service called Tumblr. Like many similar services, it allows anyone to sign-up and then offers authors their privacy. I scoured the RSS feed for hints of an author name, even a first name, but no luck. The feed is hard to read and it appears to follow the old RSS 1.0 format, so not much to see. I’m just as interested to know who is behind it and who is moved enough to spend this much time aggregating hard copy data.
I sent an email to the owner of the site but so far, crickets are chirping.
Mike,
Is there any ways can you see how long it has been running?
I’m excited to see more. Finally, we can see more of Huber’s 1980′s city resume, so I can compare the candidates and make a decision.
Thank you once again Mike Chandler.
Mike C: I believe in 1980, Steve was in high school. I could be off.
Amy: The site’s earliest post is dated in early August. I’m led to believe since it goes back several weeks and I’m seeing it now, they either don’t know much about how to promote their site or they weren’t ready for it to be found (those darn search engines).
WOW!!! GREAT READ! So Chandler what made you go with this story? Not exactly the pro Huber drivel you usually push on us, is it? Did you lose a bet?
Some of the articles are really hard to read but you should read them all. I am starting the second page. You have to admit there are some good points.
Were doing slam sites for mayor elections now? Go Simi Valley!
I don’t see it as a slam site. It appears someone is just looking into statements and claims made during this campaign. It’s more of a verification site.
I think Sojka is about the same age as my son Matt, so he was probably just starting high school.
Could Sojka and Becerra’s camps possibly be trying to throw the voters off. Even though they have recently refused some contributions from some developer/builders and others, due to possible conflicts, have they accepted contributions from these people in the past. I for one would like to see all of the present councils prior voting records while on the council and their contributors lists.
If we are going to air how one person voted 30 years ago, I think we should air all votes ever since as well.
Lets be fair and compare all the records.
@Mike, the “Leaks” site looks like it mostly addresses things one candidate claimed or is claiming in this election. I don’t see it necessarily looking at votes, but verifying whether claims are true or not. Perhaps a lesson to candidates not to assume someone will not look into things just because they happened a long time ago.
I don’t know, I don’t like candidates who stretch the truth about their background or accomplishments.
Soldier,
If I find a repository of articles about a candidate with remarks beneath each one, representing what has to be several hours, possibly several days of someone’s work, I’m going to link to it and ask the community for comment.
I know what you mean about the “Leaks” title. The images are large, so the site takes a while to load even on a high speed connection. The huge “leaks” title comes off as intimidating almost as you wait for the content to materialize… only to find no leaks at all!
BTW I sent an email to the address they posted on the About page, but still no response.
I heard from the Sojka team who indicated they were unaware of the website and wanted nothing to do with it or comment on it.
I heard from the Huber team who expressed no concern regarding the site, planning to continue pressing on with their campaign message.
Mike C., read more closely. It’s about honesty. You cannot tell Simi Valley voters during a campaign that you delivered “leadership,” when the records do not indicate those results.
I hadn’t seen the landfill post last night. That one’s interesting.
Mike C:
Would Huber vote the same as he did on the 1982 landfill decision today?
Sure are a lot of exaggerations displayed on that site, Mike C. Plus, he’s a personal injury lawyer. Truth-stretching is part of their business!
Greg, are you responsible for putting the site together? I see you promoting the link to it on other posts.
Mike C, is it relevant at all that people weren’t writing news about Steve in the early 80′s because he was graduating from high school? That’s a fact simply because of his age, right? I don’t understand why people keep bringing that up. This isn’t the first time I’ve read/heard that.
I know what you’re saying Mike, it just seems like a more reasonable comparison would be what Bob has done as a councilman and as a member of the college board versus what Steve has done as a councilman.
If I ran for Council against Steve in the future (I won’t, I promise), people would be comparing Steve’s start in his career to me running an Atari enthusiast website instead of any related community involvement? The timeline comparison just doesn’t seem relevant to me.
Fair enough. Let me know if you’d ever like to chat about Atari classics.
Who said “pass the popcorn”?
Yeah this election has been very disturbing to me to say the least. Well not only this election, all the elections in the nation really. Apparently people can’t just read a site and make their own decisions on the validity of the information. If it goes against your guy it must be a smear site right?! Right now I’m not exactly sure of who I’m voting for. But supporters on both sides made it darn hard to vote for either. But I’m going to choose to ignore the supporters and go based on the facts.
Pamala,
I have been around these Simi Valley elections my entire adult life. I was the part of sign crew for many of the people running in the 1980s. This is not only par for the course, but this race is tame compared to past elections.
This race seems rough, but the appearance has more to do with how close the race is, recent elections were ceremonial as the contenders never had a chance against the incumbents. Now that the incumbents have a race on their hands the race takes on a whole new appearance.
A close race is good for our city. It is good to get the electorate talking, it is good when people participate more intently.
I don’t see bobhuberleaks.com as a smear ….. really someone spending 100s of hours on a microfiche machine cherry picking sound bytes is smearing? Maybe more an exercise in futility.
Long term resident, it doesn’t look like they are posting Huber’s Council record, per se, but comparing what he says today with what actually happened.
Sojka has accomplished much in areas that are very important but not necessarily things people can reach out and touch. One big Sojka accomplishment that is very visible is ensuring completion of the 118 freeway widening project, which is going on right now. He was instrumental in saving the funding to keep that project moving and preventing the loss of its funding to communities elsewhere in the state. He personally lobbied for this.
Sojka also was closely involved with securing a $1.2 million Department of Justice grant that secured computers for local police cars; his suggestion resulted in the creation of the City’s Office of Economic Development; he voted for Simi Valley Town Center which opened and stopped $3 million to $5 million in sales tax from leaking out of town each year; he was instrumental in ensuring the City improved design guidelines for commercial and residential structures (something that was very much needed over lax past guidelines); and he supported and ensured the City’s managed growth ordinance continued, and with a cap at 292 homes per year with no year-to-year stockpiling. A lot of what he worked for simply made Simi Valley look more modern and better.
Steve Sojka fought to return bicycle lanes to city streets, and everyone knows he was a leader in getting significant new youth sports facilities built in town including at Big Sky Park and for Simi Youth and Santa Susana Boys Baseball, and he has helped Vikings Football significantly.
Additionally and probably most importantly, the City has had a balanced budget the entire time he has been on the City Council, and now has a prudent reserve of 13%. Hardly any City in this state can say that. It’s a huge accomplishment, which few will acknowledge but it is impressive.
There’s more, but it’s getting late and I’m tired. Just thought to enlighten you a little.
Well, you’re wrong. Just one example, if you would want to do just a little bit of research, which I’m sure you will not since it looks like you’ve already been coached to use the “part time” campaign messaging. Call and ask for a higher-up at the Ventura County Transportation Commission and ask about Sojka’s direct work saving the 118 widening project funding, and ask if he was just “there.”
seems like this garbage will only help Huber
The Pedro Nava link you provided (below) was about the first phase of the freeway widening, from Tapo Canyon Road to the Los Angeles County line.
The widening we are seeing now, in which Sojka played a big part in saving the funding for, is Phase II – Tapo Canyon Road toward Moorpark.
They are totally different projects, with totally different funding pots.
This link has absolutely nothing to do with what I first mentioned about the freeway widening project currently going on:
http://tinyurl.com/25o5n5e
Oops, I stand corrected, same Phase. While Sedell had the meetings and local lawmakers sent letters, Sojka went and testified:
http://www.simivalleyacorn.com/news/2008-06-13/front_page/003.html
Sojka went and testified…
As did I in the first phase.
Nice attempt to try to block and bridge, but it appears a main thrust of the Leaks site is that Mr. Huber makes claims that he was the primary reason for things occurring (such as being the leader in helping the City address Proposition 13 budgetary impacts), whereas Mr. Sojka merely notes he was involved in helping projects come to fruition. Additionally, only as a resident did I note Sojka’s involvement; the candidate himself did not. There’s a big difference in the candidate standing on a soapbox taking sole credit for lots of things that happened in the past, and a resident listing one thing that happened in town and saying someone like Mr. Sojka played a part in helping it move along.
What I wrote above was accurate and remains valid:
“He was instrumental in saving the funding to keep that project moving and preventing the loss of its funding to communities elsewhere in the state. He personally lobbied for this.”
It is interesting that I listed a bunch of accomplishments and the 118 widening was the only one attacked. Must have polled well.
Thanks, special Ted. Love the complaint about “major imbalance between commercial developments and residential.” Why don’t you offer a solution and ease up on the complaining?
Because perhaps your greatest desire is for more houses to be built (which benefits the shopping centers you manage), which without doubt the people of Simi Valley do not want. Say it like it is, and stop using this “balance” code word: you want more residential development in Simi Valley! But … Leadership that listens to the people will not allow more residential, at least not a significant amount of residential development if they wish to remain in office. So why keep bringing it up?
So what’s your solution. Please, let’s hear some solutions for this “balance” problem, because your candidates are not talking about it. Must not have polled well.
If there is too much commercial development here, tell your candidates to send out a news release calling for more residential development. C’mon, we need balance, Ted!
Building Town Center, and other smaller newer shopping centers, is not always about attracting shoppers from out of town or preventing sales tax leakage. Another strong element is offering residents who already live here – you know, the ones who vote for existing City Council members – more and newer choices, and more selection.
Not everyone wants to eat at Cronie’s and Eggs N Things every day, and do all their shopping only at Target.
Boy, Al Ruffill, conspiracy theorist. Mate him with the people who say Bob Huber is running for Congress. All of them, nuts.
Yea, Ted, love the letters that you and the POA guys keep pushing to have submitted. Nice Astroturf touch – not real grassroots, but artificial. Better hope the editors don’t catch on and stop running them. The conspiracy angle meant regarding the Supervisor position, which is absolute hogwash. You and your cronies keep complaining about people focusing on statements about Huber’s exaggerations and the like (ie. the Leaks site), then there are strings like this that try to place doubt in the minds of voters onto other candidates. It’s called hypocrisy.
So if you want to play that game, let’s keep it going: Huber is only running for Mayor so he can set himself up to replace his buddy Elton and run for Congress!!
Hey Mike Chandler, here’s a great topic for a separate topic for you to consider for broad discussion, because all the letters today that Mr. Mackel mentioned are clearly an indication that this is going on in Simi Valley:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing
This is such a hilarious read. The Leaks website is self explanatory and reading the site makes sense. The comments here are insane and great entertainment.
Dawn Puffie,
You said, “No fair minded person can justify why the part time council members should be able to amass full time years of service in the PERS program and exit with a guaranteed pension based upon the supervisor salary which currently stands at $119,000 and the CPI increases and medical benefits associated with it.”
Now, I like to think that I’m reasonably informed about how the council member’s pension perks work, but having the council member’s pension being linked to a supervisor’s salary is a new one on me. Perhaps you can direct me to this info with a link.
I wish no one could post comments onto this site unless they passed a Breathalyzer test. Or drug test. Or both.
Virginia, your fact pattern would be correct. What I’m wondering is where the 4 years at county supervisor factors in for pension plans.
Mitch,
Dawn Puffie was playing a whisper game that Sojka’s ultimate plan is to run for county Supervisor. Sojka has never, ever said so, not during this campaign, not ever. This was invented by the Huber campaign, and continues to be promulgated in blogs strings such as this.
Joanne,
Thanks for the background. I don’t think I’ve ever heard mention of Steve as a potential county Supervisor candidate, either. Not that he couldn’t do a fine job if it ever came down to it. But I don’t think what is said in this election should determine his future at the County level if for some reason in the future he looks to continue service to the community in a different venue.
And just as a general question, albeit way off topic for this thread, say someone had held a high paying position and then for personal reasons obtained a far lower paying position. Should they be denied a pension under PERS rules for the highest paying year held?
Just asking.
Very intriguing someone has that much time on their hands and why are they trying to discredit a candidte who is so outspoken and truly cares about our city anyways? Worth mentioning is it’s obviously very difficult to compare the early thriving 80′s to our current tough economic times of today. Huber has done a fantastic job when he, our current Congressman Elton Gallegly and former Senator Cathie Wright all served together back in the 80′s. I don’t remember hearing this sort of negative campaign attacks on them. We live in such a small town. Let’s get back to basics and fix what’s broken. And we all know there’s alot to fix. In fact let’s start with Mr. Sojika and what he has done the past 12 years on the council? Ummm? Well anyways I personally don’t want more of the same. Let’s get Mr. Huber back in office so he can make some real changes especially the ones he is so outspoken about because all I’ve heard from the other camp is crickets!!
I don’t see any broad vision for Simi Valley from Mr. Huber. There’s two ideas, E-Verify and the landfill annexation, both of which we learned the City Council already was working on before Mr. Huber brought the concepts up. For E-Verify, he framed the matter as “all about jobs,” then at the Aug. 30 Council meeting I heard that of all the cities in California that already have implemented E-Verify, the result has been 2 jobs opened up to legal residents due to the program.
Regardless, both are individualistic projects or programs. Both probably would have occurred whether or not Mr. Huber ran for office. What indeed is Mr. Huber’s vision?
With Sojka, it seems he always is talking about a vision. There’s the Arroyo Simi beautification project, which made headlines recently in getting state grant funds from a voter-approved proposition. The funding was approved by voters statewide and will go to some city in California, so why not get it here in Simi Valley? Improving a waterway that essentially is a long vein through the entire length of the city would be a huge recreational amenity.
Parallel that with his proposal this week for a multi-agency approach to beautifying the 118 freeway. With just two proposals, two long very visible chunks of land – the arroyo and the freeway – would be beautified for the long-term. Having a better-looking city overall helps attract new businesses to Simi Valley (people can argue against this all they want, but it is true: how your community looks makes an impression on visiting executives), and besides it raises property values.
Sojka proposed and had passed just in June the Business Roundtable, which already has been meeting, a group of volunteering local business owners meeting together with City department administrators to work to streamline the permitting process.
There is more (particularly in the youth sports realm), but I need to get to work. Some of these items, residents have written about in published letters to the editor, so I am perplexed by the “crickets” comment. Some people send out news releases several times a week, some do not. But the information about Sojka’s concepts and proposals is out there and is being talked about. If gung-ho Huber supporters choose to ignore it, that’s okay, that is their choice. But many people in town expect a vision from their Mayor, and we keep hearing about it from Steve Sojka.
I want a long-term vision and goals for Simi Valley from the Mayor, not just campaign soundbites.
The Council put the Everify on hold until it was brought up again by outside forces. With regards to the landfill expansion, they just recently decided to talk to WM about it. Before that, ONLY Barbra Williamson was the one talking about it.
The claim that only 2 jobs were “opened” for legal workers is incorrect. You do not know how many illegal workers did not apply because EVerify was being used. The fact is that EVerify is a tool to confirm the already required information (I9) and it only makes sense to do the online check. Why do you think that the police check your drivers license with the DMV information rather than just looking at it?
I’d like to see a news release from Mr. Huber explaining what he did to help the City’s budget to deal with the impacts of the passage of Prop. 13. Everyone on this stream seems to just attack the website, but there are some questions it raises in my mind. The Prop. 13 work is one area.
When all else fails attack Don Norris?
Ummm… I’m not running for office, and I’m NOT the person behind HUBERLEAKS.
Really Mike C? ‘… smells like an angry Don Norris?’
Care to explain?
Thank goodness you finally saw that, Don, it was posted quite a while ago. Glad you saw it.
I don’t see the Leaks posts as angry, but more as matter-of-fact. The tone is not angry. More like, “Here it is, and here is our analysis, take it or leave it.”
That was an absolute cheap shot. Mike C should be smoked out and identified, or barred from commenting further on this website.
Thanks Vin! Thanks Terry!!
Mike C? I’m here, waiting for your response.