By Terry Miller
Residents in Arcadia received a newsletter from ‘Save the Arcadia Highlands’ group earlier this week attacking some of the city councilmembers’ votes on certain issues with particular regard to the large homes being built in Arcadia. The newsletter’s tone was highly critical of several councilmembers and the financial controversy over a cancelled trip to China & Taiwan.
We contacted councilmembers for comment as well as City Manager, Dominic Lazzaretto.
John Wuo was deeply concerned and said this via email:
“I am extremely upset, because it is all lies. For instance, we did not receive any money, so how can we return money back to them (China Trip)? Also accusing us (3 councils) breaking the law, in fact they are the one not following our City’s building and zoning code. Each project went through city’s appeal process, planning commission voted 5-0 and council voted 4-1 and 3-2 to approval these 2 projects.
The whole articles are racist, and I am shocked and surprised that these are Arcadia’s residents.”
While the content is offensive to many, the logo and the general appearance of the newsletter portended to be an official city newsletter, which, of course, it is not.
Arcadia City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto responded to our request for comment: “I received a copy of the flier shortly before your email arrived. Regarding the logos, the Save the Highlands website had originally used the actual City logo. We sent them notice that it was necessary to stop using it, and they quickly complied with that request. So, while this version is certainly reminiscent of our logo – and the entire design looks very similar to a City newsletter – I don’t see it as being so close as to infringe on any of our copyrights.
It’s great when residents get involved in the democratic process and we always encourage a healthy and vigorous debate on important issues affecting the community.
Unfortunately, the Save Arcadia newsletter is a bit troubling to me. It’s unnecessarily divisive and doesn’t seem to advance the conversation in any meaningful way.”
David Arvizu for the Homeowners’ Association responded to our request for their side of the story:
“The newsletter is not racist. Period.
“Whichever councilman made that statement was attempting to distract from the information that was given in the newsletter. It’s an old trick that politicians use when that can’t defend themselves. Instead of explaining their actions, they try to divert attention to something else. In this case, they decided to play the race card. Fortunately, the residents of our city are media-savvy enough to recognize this smokescreen and see through it.
“The newsletter is not divisive, it’s informative. The purpose of the newsletter is not to create division, but rather to make the citizens of Arcadia aware of what some City Councilmen are doing and the motivation behind those actions. These individuals rely on their ability to act without the general public being aware of their conduct; our goal is to shine a light into this darkness.
“Everything written in the newsletter is factual and true. If someone on the city council feels that the newsletter is antagonistic toward them, it’s because they are being ‘called out’ on their bad behavior. I challenge any councilman that takes issue with the newsletter to step up and defend themselves in a public debate.”
You can visit the website directly at www.savethearcadiahighlands.org.
The newsletter in question is right here:
