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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels October 30, 2004 Fliers come out against Don Laws By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings A concerned Ashland citizen took it upon himself to have an impact on two city council races. Acting without the consent of city council candidates Jack Hardesty and Russ Silbiger, Art Bullock began distributing fliers with misleading information in Ashland neighborhoods last weekend. The fliers highlight the Nevada Street project as a campaign issue and urges voters to unseat Don Laws, who currently holds Seat 1 on the council. "What it is a last-minute attack," Laws said. "Even though it's put in the form of advocacy, it's actually an attack and much of it is untrue." Hardesty and Silbiger do not oppose the fliers, although they had no prior knowledge of the campaign tactic. Bullock has been working with the Hardesty campaign and Silbiger considers him a supporter. "I haven't seen that [the flier]" said Hardesty, who is vying to unseat Laws. "That doesn't bother me. He knows where I stand." The fliers discuss the LID design for the Nevada Street project, but contain blatant factual errors. For example, Bullock states "the LID uses bumpouts that delay emergency response time for Fire and EMS," and "Public Works Director Paula Brown didn't disclose her conflicts of interest [with the project]." Bullock contends the fliers tell the truth. "The flier is factual," Bullock said. Ashland City Administrator Gino Grimaldi confirmed Brown had been cleared of any conflict of interest by the city attorney and that the fire department had been involved in work group that created the Nevada Street LID design, which included the bumpouts. "They approved the plan that went forward to the city council," Grimaldi said. The flier also states Laws "voted against the Nevada St. majority and against citizen efforts in the Big Box decisions," accusations Laws are false. The council voted unanimously on the Nevada Street project and Laws has voted for both Big Box ordinances that have come before the council in recent years. "The whole thing is, of course, opposed to me in that sense," Laws said, adding he doesn't believe the details of the Nevada Street project are relevant to the campaign. "That's why I was excited about it because a lot of this is not true." Moreover, Bullock does not make statements against mayoral candidate John Morrison and city council candidate Cate Hartzell, who moved and seconded the approval of the Nevada Street Project Resolution, however, the author believes his intentions behind the fliers is obvious. "The flier is self-explanatory," he said. Bullock promotes the positions of Hardesty and Silbiger by including personal e-mails the two candidates had sent to Bullock and citing both as candidates who could "fix the Nevada LID and future LIDs." Neither candidate knew Bullock had planned to distribute the e-mails. "I guess if it's something I've e-mailed him, then he can use it," said Silbiger, who is running against two others for Seat 5. "I know he's been passing out some of my brochures." It's unknown how many fliers were passed out door-to-door or what distributors said as they handed out the information. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams