Candidate Lutz announces hunger strike until Hunter agrees to debate

Candidate Lutz announces hunger strike until Hunter agrees to debate
NEWS RELEASE
August 11, 2010
San Diego County, Calif.

"Representative Hunter either has no respect for the voters of his district, or else is so terrified of engaging in an honest debate on the issues that he refuses to face his challengers," said Ray Lutz, the Democratic candidate challenging Rep. Duncan D. Hunter for California's 52nd congressional seat.

In two separate, hand-delivered letters, the Lutz campaign requested a series of eight debates, taking place in each community throughout the 52nd district. Delivery of the second letter was recorded on video, and was greeted with malice, verbal abuse and expulsion of the camera from the Hunter's office. Libertarian candidate Michael Benoit agreed to the series of debates without condition.
For the time being, all debates have been canceled.

"Until Hunter steps up to the plate, I'll be stepping away from the dinner plate," Lutz said. "Starting at sundown this Thursday, August 12, I will refuse to eat until he agrees to debate. I hope my sacrifice will make him realize the community expects him to take their issues seriously.

"Hunter obviously has no respect for the democratic process," Lutz said. "But, to be fair, his votes prove he has no respect for seniors, the unemployed, small business owners, tribal rape victims or anyone who has been stomped on by our healthcare system."...

San Diego County employee of the month: Lori Spar, Blackwater lawyer

KPBS TV in San Diego published the following story about a lady with interesting ethics.

Blackwater Opponents Say County Employee Has Conflict of Interest
Jul 24, 2007
by Amita Sharma

Opponents of a proposal to build a training camp in East County for military and police personnel say a San Diego County employee -- who until recently was working on the review process for the project -- has a conflict of interest. Full Focus reporter Amita Sharma has more.

The opponents have honed in on Lori Spar. According to Raymond Lutz, coordinator for Citizens' Oversight Projects, Spar's work history raises questions about whether the review of the Blackwater project for Potrero by the county's department of planning and land use is truly objective.

Lutz: She worked at the department of planning and land use as a planner and then went out and got her law degree and passed the bar exam and so forth, and was working at the law firm that was representing Blackwater -- and you can see the file at the department of planning use that she was the person at the meetings representing their point of view. And then just a month later she had gotten a job back at the department of planning and land use, was working on the Blackwater case, and was now representing the county.

County officials, including Lori Spar, did not return phone calls to Full Focus.

But earlier this year Glenn Russell, chief of the regulatory section of the department of planning and land use, confirmed at a meeting on the Blackwater Project that Spar used to work for the county as a planner. He said:

Russell: Then she decided she didn't like being a lawyer and wanted to be a land-use planner and then she came back to us. She actually was working on the project team. As soon as it was brought to our attention that her firm was actually the firm representing the applicant, we took her off the project. We are very concerned that there might be an appearance of a conflict of interest.

Lutz says county officials need to rethink whether Spar should be on the payroll at all while the department of planning and land-use assesses the Blackwater project.

Lutz: We should take a look at these hiring practices because to hire someone and then to just assign them to a project that they're on, this doesn't make any sense to anyone I can talk to -- except for the people at DPLU, they think it's fine.

Legal observers are split on the appropriateness of Spar's employment at the county. Some say it's legal but ethically questionable. Others say Spar has a conflict because working for the county requires her to disclose all she knows about Blackwater.

But her prior role as that company's attorney precludes her from such disclosure because of attorney-client privilege rules.

Protest against Blackwater in Potrero

Yesterday, campers, bicyclists and hikers came to Potrero to listen to speakers regarding the Blackwater military security contractor's proposed training camp in Potrero.

They were joined by some who came just for the afternoon education session, which included a slide show by Ray Lutz, president of East County Democratic Club. Carol Jahnkow presided over the scheduling. The Sierra Club gave a presentation regarding wildlife in the area, and Enrique Morones spoke about violence at the border.

I was captivated by the beauty and quiet of Potrero. It is certainly a loss to the world to transform this place into a school for mercenaries, especially at a time when Blackwater has been banned from operating in Iraq. The September 16, 2007 incident in which Blackwater killed 17 civilians for no apparent reason has earned the company persona non grata status from the Iraq governement.

Why does Blackwater need more training camps if its theater of operations is diminishing? Are they training mercenaries for domestic actions?


The San Diego Reader reported in April 2007 on the history of Blackwater:

"People who lost loved ones when four employees were massacred in 2004 have charged that the company provided the men with inadequate equipment. In its defense, Blackwater has hired famed attorney Ken Starr and sued the lawyers who filed the case. Last month, five more Blackwater employees were killed in a helicopter crash. The company's owner, Erik Prince, has given lavishly to politicians, including former representative Tom DeLay, who left Congress in a lobbying scandal, and Duncan Hunter ($1000 in 2004)."



Blackwater representatives met with Rep. Duncan Hunter and Sup. Dianne Jacob in May, 2006. A month later the project opened at the San Diego County Department of Planning and Land Use (DPLU). Blackwater made a presentation to the Potrero Planning Group in Oct. 2006 and that group voted 7-0 to approve the project in Dec. 2006. A lawsuit was filed opposing the actiions of the Potrero Planning Group. Jan Hedlun, who opposes the Blackwater takeover, was sworn into office in January, 2007. A December 11, 2007 Recall Election has been approved by the Registrar Of Voters.


Miriam Raftery and Muriel Kane wrote on April 3, 2007 for Raw Story:

"One citizen opposed to the project revealed that Lori Spar—listed with the California Bar Association as an attorney with a law firm representing Blackwater on July 31, 2006 —has since unexpectedly surfaced as a land use/environmental planner for the Department of Planning and Land Use.

""She walked into our Mar. 1, 2007 Save Potrero meeting, representing the County," said former Potrero planner Carl Meyer.

"After RAW STORY inquired about her ties to Blackwater, the Department of Planning removed her from the project...

"Documents filed with the county indicate Blackwater officials have been meeting privately with Department of Planning and Land Use personnel since at least May of 2006. Members of the public in Potrero did not learn of the proposed project until Oct. 12 at the earliest. One whistleblower contends that failure to notify the public until late in the planning process may violate the California Environmental Quality Act; others allege that County planners may have violated the Brown Act, which mandates open meetings.

"Environmentalist Duncan McFetridge questions why residents weren’t included in early planning.

""It is as close to collusion as you can get without actually being illegal,” McFetridge says. “I am convinced that one of the main reasons that Blackwater came to San Diego is that we are the capital of privatization where lines between private and public sectors is a total blur.""

San Diego County Supervisors Dianne Jacob and Greg Cox should extract themselves from the grasping fingers of developers, at least for this useless and harmful project, and vote against allowing Blackwater to take over part of the Cleveland National Forest and other sensitive land.