WHO IS HAROLD KAUFMAN?


When Councilman Harold Kaufman objected to the expansion of Hennessey's Tavern at the October 27th council meeting, I thought it was only a liberal knee jerk reaction. He suspected that someone, somewhere, might be having a good time. I was wrong. Harold was trying to extract his pound of flesh from Hennessey's for having put up signs supporting the pro-resident Council members, Ruby Netzley and Bill Ossenmacher in the last election.

Kaufman demanded an investigation to determine if displaying campaign signs in a political campaign was a breach of campaign finance law. He demanded that Ossenmacher and Netzley refrain from voting on Hennessey's expansion because because "there may be a conflict of interest." Never mind that Hennessey's has bailed out the plaza. There is this inconvenient document called the First Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing free speech. Besides, didn't the owners of the Dana Point Headlands (a holding company owned by the Chandler family, editor) put up $20,000 to buy Kaufman's seat on the Council in 1994? Didn't Dana Point United funnel another $10,000 in developer money to assure Kaufman's election?

Applying Kaufman's logic, he should be prohibited from voting on the Headlands project, any time share projects, any dealings with major oil companies, etc. because these are the people who put him in office, and I demand that Councilman Kaufman be investigated for his dealings with these out of town special interests. There may be a conflict of interest.

Harold's patrons should have a talk with him about his outrageous behavior at these televised public meetings. If he is posturing for the next election, he is going to have to clean up his tactics if he expects to continue to serve his wealthy sponsors.

Jack Roberts

(Mr. Roberts is a respected, longtime Dana Point resident)

SOURCE: The letter above is reprinted from the Letters to the Editor of the Dana Point News, 6 November, 1997, edition, because it is in the public interest.

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