The Sacramento Bee publishes a diatribe of disinformation, blaming the free press for Michael Tubbs’ loss, alleging “disinformation”- written by his own former “public information officer”.
STOCKTON- Former Michael Tubbs’ former public information officer, Daniel Lopez’s argument that Tubbs lost to “disinformation” is based on “disinformation”. Prior to working for Tubbs, Lopez worked for former Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.
The Sacramento Bee, who is aware 209 Times is now entering into the Sacramento market with 916 Times, allowed Lopez to submit a guest column that is chock full of “disinformation” that can easily be disputed. This is the second article the Sacramento Bee has ran in an attempt to inaccurately explain away why Michael Tubbs lost his election in such an overwhelming fashion. Other corporate media outlets from around the nation have all continued to circle the same sore loser wagon.
Lopez wrote:
“For example, one story claimed that Tubbs had a secret plan to create a regional homeless hub, where Stockton would absorb homeless individuals from the Bay Area. Readers were also told that $60 million earmarked for homeless programs was given to Tubbs’ campaign donors. In reality, no homeless hub plan existed, and the city only received $6.5 million for homelessness which Tubbs did not control.”
209 Times never said $60 million earmarked for homeless programs “was given to Tubbs’ campaign donors” nor did 209 Times ever say the city received $60 million for the homeless. Lopez is using a unethical straw man fallacy argument.
What 209 Times did ask and are still asking for is a forensic cost/benefit analysis of the $60 million the county homeless task force received. We also continue to ask questions such as “why did Reinvent Stockton’s in-house counsel, Noah Guiney, create a for profit consulting business for Tubbs that he never disclosed on his statement of economic interest?” We also want to know about who are the actual individual donors behind the Tides Center donations that Tubbs solicited that went towards paying council member Andrade’s salary. These are the kind of questions that corporate media refuses to ask because it apparently does not fit their narrative that only corporate media is trustworthy.
Meanwhile Lopez is still incessantly repeating “No homeless hub plan existed” as if this chant can somehow magically change the facts that impacted the results of the election.
Tubbs, his handpicked city manager, Harry Black, Jesus Andrade and Kathy Miller all parroted this similar falsehood during the election. Corporate media bought their lies. Voters did not.
The reason informed voters, both Democrats and Republicans, so vehemently rejected Tubbs was unlike other media, 209 Times supplied the public with factual documentation, not just the biased opinions of Tubbs’ own inner circle. Here is a portion of the written synopsis from the FOURTH Stockton Area Homeless and Water Task Force meeting. This synopsis, dubbed “for internal use only” was openly copied to numerous city, county and state officials, including Tubbs, his assistants Max Vargas and Cameron Burns, city manager Harry Black, his assistant Patty Vasquez and Jesus Andrade. Unfortunately for those government officials wanting to be less than honest, 209 Times obtained it and then 209 Times shared it.
Read it yourself:
- A Pilot program to move waterway campers from levees to State funded location that would provide wrap-around services, allow a collaborative effort to clean up water ways, and create a foundation for partnerships opportunities:
a. Identify a site (e.g., the Fair Grounds)
Internal Use Only
Stockton Area Homeless and Water Task Force
Internal Outreach Notes October 12, 2020
b. Communication with the public would promote a visible clean-up effort that cleans up trash and provides sanitation. It would also specifically outline what will be done and how local officials need to support.
c. A Mobile Homeless Outreach Team would focus on people living along waterways, work with them every day, bring them to emergency congregate shelters at Fair Grounds, provide services such as rental assistance, wrap around services, drinking water, sanitation, etc. The goal is to support them to be established in permanent housing.
d. Coordination with the Housing Authority and other leaders to support all aspects.
e. How to make progress towards this pilot:
i. Establish robust Outreach Teams specifically assigned to water ways
that provide sanitation and clean up services. This would be the foundation of the pilot. The Outreach Team would gather information on what the issues are.
ii. Project Home Key could provide up to $35 million to a region for projects like purchasing a motel and converting it to housing.
iii. Use funding to expand emergency shelter and permanent housing that would hopefully trickle down to waterway campers.
iv. Secure the Fair Grounds location since it is state owned and has low nimbyism risk since it’s more isolated from the public, has capacity to support emergency shelter. Alternative locations include: an old DMV building and CalTrans locations.”
-STOCKTON AREA AGENCY HOMELESS TASK FORCE PLANNING MEETING FOURTH AGENDA
Wednesday, October 14, 2020 (Tubbs, Miller, Black, Andrade and their assistants were all CC’ed on the emailed).
