An Open Letter to Kris Adams and SAPOA

Disappointment is too weak a term to describe my feelings towards SAPOA president Kris Adams’ recent op-ed to SbyNEWS.  While I applaud SbyNEWS printing the piece, I am deeply saddened to see that SAPOA (and Mrs. Adams) have decided to march down the same electoral path of the last few Salisbury elections.  It is obvious that they have learned nothing.
SAPOA doesn’t like Salisbury mayor Jim Ireton, councilwoman Debbie Campbell, councilwoman Terry Cohen, or council candidate Tim Spies.  Fair enough.  They are all friends of mine and I disagree with them quite frequently; particularly when it comes to Mayor Ireton’s housing regulation package (sorry Jim - “Crime Package”).  That said, it is SAPOA – the party claiming to being persecuted – who is attacking these fine individuals using every despicable tactic in the book.

In 2007, we saw SAPOA members recruit SU students and literally bus (in some cases dubiously) registered voters to the polls at taxpayer expense.  These misinformed folk were told that they would lose their homes if the SAPOA-backed ticket wasn’t elected.

In 2009, SAPOA members resorted to the worst kinds of personal slurs against then-candidate Jim Ireton.  Along with these, city renters were bombarded with literature attacking Ireton and councilwoman Debbie Campbell.  The nastiness of SAPOA’s tactics backfired; as we learned through interviews conducted by WSDL’s Don Rush.

2011 looked as if it might be a different year.  Too much of Ireton’s “Safe Streets” package was so blatantly anti-business that even long time opponents such as myself jumped to SAPOA’s defense.  With Kris Adams as president, SAPOA seemed to have a new face – both literally and figuratively.  SAPOA seemed to be ceasing their laughable self-portrayal as “protectors of the poor, the oppressed, the black, and the brown”.  Instead, Adams talked about SAPOA being what they are – businessmen and women – who are working to attain an adequate return on their sizable investment by providing a needed service.

Well, it seems that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.  SAPOA has returned to their old ways of deceit, scaremongering, and (as we will see in the next several weeks) attempting to buy elections.

As we noted here a couple of weeks ago, SAPOA is playing the race card.  While this is always offensive, any group that uses this tactic AND has members who have actually threatened persons because they rented a home in THEIR neighborhood to a black family are hypocrites of the highest order.

Now we have an early salvo from Adams.  Expect more as the election progresses.

Adams starts off her op-ed by stating that “Salisbury’s politics play out like the theatre of the absurd”.  On this point we can agree, though not for the reasons she later cites.  In fact, this is one of the few statements Adams makes which have any basis in reality.

Only in Salisbury is it considered normal for the Mayor and Council to make use of slurs and inaccurate broad generalizations about tenants and business people alike.

While Ireton has been known to go a little wild at times, there is no evidence that Campbell or Cohen slur renters and scant evidence that they slur landlords.  Both make a point to note that there are good landlords and bad ones.  Even SAPOA has admitted this in multiple public statements by its members.  Campbell and Cohen are both vigorous supporters of a “tenant bill of rights”.  SAPOA doesn’t even want those words mentioned together in public.

Only in Salisbury can two City Council members share the same website and push the same agenda, and no one, especially the press, is disturbed by the collusion.

What collusion?  There is certainly nothing illegal about this.  Besides, I don’t recall SAPOA complaining when county councilwoman Sheree Sample-Hughes and Salisbury councilwoman Shanie Shields jointly published a newsletter.  Of course not, Shields behaves like the “house slave” for SAPOA.  Wouldn’t want to criticize her.

Only in Salisbury is a "public input" meeting code language for a taxpayer funded bully pulpit to proselytize and to campaign for re-election.

One of my personal favorites.  Who dominated the discussion at these meetings?  SAPOA – its members, family, and friends.

Only in Salisbury do we deny housing to the veterans who served and protected our country because the veteran’s house doesn’t fit the Mayor and Council Members’ myopic definition of what is acceptable.

Another favorite – and another lie.  The owner of this “veterans’ home”, a SAPOA member, built a multi-family home in a single family residential neighborhood.  He “misrepresented” the project on his building permit application AND his application for an occupancy permit.  Bringing this matter up simply adds evidence to the pile that SAPOA has NO respect for the city’s zoning laws, and possibly its other laws as well.
This list goes on, and on, and on ….  While I do agree with Mrs. Adams that there are those in city government (as well as the state and federal governments) who believe that they know more about what a business needs than the businesses’ owners, little else in her attack piece holds up to the light of evidence and reason.  Sadly, this is just the camel’s nose under the tent.  As the election season progresses it’s going to get pretty bumpy.