Yesterday’s post regarding Kris Adams, president of the Salisbury Area Property Owners’ Association (SAPOA), her daughter Alex, and newly elected Salisbury councilman Tim Spies should be cause for concern to all Salisbury voters. Are these tactics the actions of a disturbed woman or an organized attempt to intimidate elected officials who are not already firmly in their grasp?
On this question, we shouldn’t even speculate at this time. Only time will confirm whether or not Monday’s call to the Salisbury Police was an isolated and bizarre act or a pattern of behavior. However, we believe that we should all be reminded of past behavior by related parties so that we can be vigilant as to any future action.
- Several years ago I was at a dinner with family and friends. After we had eaten, an acquaintance came to our table for a visit. This person, a fairly prominent businessman in Salisbury, commended me for “taking (then Salisbury mayor) Barrie Tilghman to task” and further remarked that literally having to wade through drug dealers and hookers to get to his office door each morning was having an adverse effect on his business. After thanking him I asked why he and his business colleagues didn’t show up at council meetings and demand that the city do a better job. His reply? Anyone who dares show up to council meetings on a Monday night to complain is met Tuesday morning with a cadre of code compliance officers followed by a stiff fine for offenses real or imagined.
- In 2007, SAPOA members delivered letter to their tenants denouncing council candidates Terry Cohen and Tim Spies. Some went so far as to claim that tenants would lose their abodes if Cohen and Spies were elected.
- In 2009, mayoral candidate Jim Ireton not only had to campaign for office but had to endure multiple anonymous mass mailings containing some of the most vile and hateful garbage I have witnessed in over 35 years of political involvement.
- During the same campaign, Ireton and councilwoman Debbie Campbell were the victims of gross misrepresentations by Kris Adams’ daughter Alex. Ironically, the younger Ms. Adams did so while (falsely) claiming to be a spokesperson for the Salisbury University student government. When made aware of this, the SU student government had to step in and denounce Ms. Adams’ actions.
- SAPOA members have publicly attacked supporters of Mayor Ireton’s “Safe Streets” package (a measure that SbyNEWS does not fully support) and compared them to Nazis.
These are just a few examples of past behavior that can be traced to SAPOA members and their political allies.
While this site, and this writer, have been accused of “intimidating” public officials and of causing good candidates to not run for public office, we find it amusing that I have always signed my work and stood by any charge I have leveled. Yet, we see a demonstrable pattern of SAPOA members and their allies anonymously attacking candidates and hurling slurs at people whose greatest crimes are exercising their God-given rights to speak their mind and freely assemble.
The most ironic charge thrown at SAPOA’s political opponents (enemies, in SAPOA’s eyes) is that they somehow “hate renters”. IF Mayor Ireton’s “Tenant Bill of Rights” actually becomes law this year, we wonder how SAPOA and its allies will attempt to manage the spin.
For the present Salisbury citizens should simply be vigilant. As the prospectus says – “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.” We know from experience that Salisbury voters are decreasingly willing to believe the hateful, ridiculous, and anonymous charges thrown out by SAPOA members and their allies. Simply look at the last three city elections. We can only hope that this past week’s incident is a foolish act by an individual. If a pattern emerges, recent history indicates that these tactics will backfire and SAPOA’s own actions could be the cause of its worst nightmares.
21 comments:
Great posting!
The call to the police was also a waste of police resources. People like that are usually delt a hand of terminal illness or other unforseen mishaps that leave their crappy life even worse. Let God sort them out.
SAPOA should lay low and out of the spotlight. All Kris Adams is doing is energizing the troops against all landlords. I hope the Mayor does pass his legislation and we will get the last laugh. If I was SAPOA I would try to distance the group from Kris Adams and keep a low profile. Time will tell but I think she has made some big mistakes and the group will suffer for it.
The SOPOA is obviously afraid of the new council structure.
These types of actions will be their downfall.
This lady and her daughter need mental help.
I'm looking forward to see the improvements in the city.
I'm also interested to see the actions of Shanie.
I think the SAPOA will have to abide by the law now.
Anon 0840 -
Let's take this in baby steps.
In one case it is clearly anecdotal. I relayed and anecdote of what occurred at a dinner I attended. You are free to call me a liar, but you certainly have no evidence to refute my statement.
As to the other examples I gave, I have written multiple posts in the past that included links to scanned copies of the offending documents.
Third, this is an opinion piece. If you had bothered to read, you would note that it is clearly marked as such. In fact, when you posted your comment, it was right in front of you. Just above the "Post a Comment Link" there is a grey box that shows the time of the post, the fact that I authored it, and that this post is labeled "Opinion / Editorial".
I sign my work. Why don't you?
G.A. I am thrilled to see you posting your work as OpEd. But, alas, many of the readers here don't pay attention, and if they do, they probably don't know what that means! Kudos to you! (and I usually don't agree with anything you write!)For the record, I know nothing (first hand) about city issues so won't even try to comment on this post.
I cant believe she would do that with her child
Maybe it's time for SBYNews to bring all of those SAPOA misdeed stories together as a single post to remind readers of what they've done over past years.
Yeah, we could just put "SAPOA" in the search box, but we'd like some current commentary along with the postings, just to see how it all fits together.
Anon 0858 -
Thanks. I had actually written a comment a few days ago in response a similar criticism that I would attempt to label all future posts as either News or Op/Ed. I had never bothered before because most of what I wrote on SbyNEWS was op/ed.
Joe has a few changes planned for SbyNEWS. They will be outlined to our over the next several months. However, in the spirit of those changes I decided to begin labeling each post I write.
Thanks again.
Glad to see this post. I was afraid that SOPOA was trying to lure Joe over to the darkside. I'm glad he saw through it. The actions of these leaches on society need to be front and center to prevent them from gaining a powerful footing in City government.
I guess that’s why all of a sudden SAPOA's eyes are square on the City of Fruitland! At a recent Fruitland City council meeting which took place on April 12, 2011 Ms. Adams, Richard Insley and his son (for real! does anyone else think that Rich Jr. is freshly off "the little yellow bus"? Him and daddy were even dress identical!" so everyone at once....AWWWWWWW)let us not forget, the king of Slum, death and LFB! Donnie Williams. Well the City of Fruitland has in its mist a proposal to set landlord fees and inspections to the slumlords of Fruitland!
Of course, one thing that struck me odd was their (SAPOA ‘s)views of the new proposal was “look at Salisbury , do you guys want the same kind of problems that the citizens of Salisbury have to deal with”?
LOL…..
LOOK OUT FRUITLAND >>>>HERE COMES SAPOA!
Ms. Adams makes Stu Leer look like a diplomat!
Fruitland already has enough problems with the students that rent from these guys. Did you know that Fruitland has an officer assigned to college student-related incidents? That's how many problems we have, and if you ask Insley to do something about his tenants, he tells you to call the police. That would be the same person that offered his business card when he first bought the property, saying to call him if you had ANY problems with the tenants next door. He only does what he has to in order to rent these places out, leaving the people who own their property to suffer. You can always tell the rentals from the trash in the yards, total lack of upkeep with the grass, bushes, etc. Apparently he's an ass to deal with as a tenant, too, from what I've been told. With SU building so much student housing, I fail to see why they can't live there, leaving the neighborhoods to families again. If you have an issue with what I've said, obviously you've not had to live by these "party houses".
G.A.,
This piece would not be considered an opinionated article...We all know that you have a very vivid imagination and i do believe it's more along the lines of imaginary, fabricated, exaggerated, fantasy, ect.
Anon 0922 -
I think that I can speak for Joe, as well as myself, on this one. No one is going to "lure" either of us anywhere. The simple reality is that neither of us consider landlords to be generically evil. We don't think that SAPOA is de facto evil. These are business people, not philanthropists. They are trying to maximize the return on their sizable investments. This is as it should be.
The blame for what has happened in the city of Salisbury rests on the Salisbury city government; not on SAPOA or the landlords. Housing regulation in Salisbury (to date) has been either non-existent, or written to benefit the landlord, or simply poorly conceived.
I opposed much of Ireton's plan because it was too extreme and claimed to be "crime related". I am hopeful that the new council majority, working with Jim Ireton, will provide city residents, renters and homeowners alike, with the type of regulation that is needed; while not being an undue burden on the people who have invested millions of dollars on these properties.
Do I expect landlords to scream? Yes. I would too if I had been allowed to operate like it was the Wild West and then suddenly a new Sheriff rode into town. They will simply have to adapt. That means they will have to learn to do two things: Compromise and Treat the Mayor and Council with the same respect and deference which they believe they are deserving of.
Anon 1408 -
I think you commented on the wrong site. If you are going to make a claim, we expect a little evidence here. You may choose not to accept my proffers. This is your right. However, you might try to come up with a little evidence yourself to prove your point. Instead, you simply offer the type of statement we have come to expect from someone who is not only bigger than me, but has a lot more facial hair.
Umm, God didn't give you the right to "freely assemble," the Constiution did. Unless you believe that God deliberately chose to prevent citizens of other countries from being able to freely assemble. I'm all on board for God's selectivity, I mean we all know that God believes America is the best country, but I'm fairly certain he didn't write the Constitution.
Anon 1451 -
You obviously haven't made much of a study regarding the ideas that were behind our Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Modern political theory (yes, the period running from the 17th century - the early 19th century is considered "modern") included thinkers such as Locke, Montesquieu, our Founding Fathers, and Burke. These men believed that our liberty was God-given and not something that the state could give or take away. In fact, that is why there was such an argument over the Bill of Rights. Some of our founders believed that explicitly listing certain rights would imply that other rights were not inherent. Some wanted the Bill of Rights to explicitly protect certain rights while including the 9th and 10th amendments to address the concern of those who did not want a "Bill of Rights".
The fact that people in other country's are not able to speak or assemble freely does not mean that those rights are not God-given. You seem to be under the misguided notion that I (and / or other Christians) believe that God dictates our actions and those of our fellow citizens. You are wrong. Christians do not hold that we are automatons, but that God made us with free will.
While I am a proponent of American exceptionalism, I am offended by your snide, sarcastic remark that "God believes America is the best country". Visit any place in Europe where WWI soldiers are buried. You will see "For God and Country" written in quite a few different languages. I am a believer that God gave our Founders the wisdom to allow them to create the greatest nation on Earth. That is not the same thing.
An "undue burden"? Define that. What about the "undue burden" these people you have listed all the dirty deeds of have placed on homeowners who have invested in THEIR properties? I hope you aren't saying that because Kris Adams or someone like her has invested more dollars in her income making properties that she deserves a softer ride than than I who can only afford to put thousands into my home. What do you consider an "undue burden" for these people after what they've lost me in property value?
SAPOA has been run by the off-the-walls for years. #1 reason I'll never join that group.
All I can say is I really dislike slum lords!!!!!!!!!!
They get away with humans living in sub standard conditions and they live in big fancy house. Maybe they should live in some of their rentals for awhile and see how they like it.
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