FW: NCTimes-Sifuentes & Bennett: Horn's accessibility drawing fresh complaints (waaht was that Landavazo said at the Parks mtg?)

------ Forwarded Message
From: <char.ayers@att.net>
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:35:09 +0000
To: Charlene Ayers <char.ayers@att.net>
Subject: NCTimes-Sifuentes & Bennett: Horn's accessibility drawing fresh complaints (waaht was that Landavazo said at the Parks mtg?)

Saturday, April 12, 2008
Last modified Saturday, April 12, 2008 5:05 PM PDT


Horn's accessibility drawing fresh complaints

By EDWARD SIFUENTES and DARRYN BENNETT - Staff Writers

NORTH COUNTY ---- Among some of his constituents, San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn has developed a reputation over the years for being unreachable and inaccessible.

Members of two planning commissions and a neighborhood group are renewing the grievance, saying they have been routinely snubbed by Horn, whose district includes much of North County.

It's a complaint that has echoed for years. Horn says he is busy and can't meet with everyone in his district and that members of his staff are available to meet with constituents.

"I could waste hours a day with people who want to come in and complain," Horn said. "I just can't do that."

While Horn maintains he is often too busy to meet with everyone who wants to see him, his daily appointment calendar indicates the opposite.

A review by the newspaper of county supervisors' daily calendars from July through February shows Horn's weekly schedule had 71 weekdays where he had no meetings scheduled. The calendar shows several stretches of consecutive days with no meetings or appearances of any kind listed.

Members of an Escondido area neighborhood group say Horn has repeatedly refused in recent weeks to sit down with them to discuss their objections to a storage complex that developers want to build.

Horn's chief of staff, Joan Wonsley, said in late February that he was simply too busy to meet with the group. But Horn's calendar that month had 10 weekdays blank, including the last Thursday and Friday of the month.

Booked

While Horn's daily calendar for the eight-month period reviewed by the newspaper showed long stretches with no meetings, Dianne Jacob, who's district includes parts of North County, had 22 days with no meetings. Jacob's district includes Poway, Ramona and much of rural East County.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Horn said his calendar is often blank simply because many of his appointments, meetings and events he attends aren't recorded.

"I don't write everything down," Horn said. The calendar is "a planning document, not a diary."

Horn said he often attends community events, such as car shows and farmers markets, without making note of them. He also said he often travels to represent the county on state and national associations and to l obby in Sacramento.

Few community events, however, appear on his daily calendar for the eight-month period the newspaper examined.

His workweeks can often extend into Saturdays, but he generally avoids working on Sundays to be with his family, he said.

Meeting demanded

Rather than meeting with Horn, members of the Bear Valley Rural Neighbors Association, the group opposing the Escondido area storage complex, were invited to meet with his staff.

Association spokesman Mark Edmonds says he was simply told that Horn was too busy to meet.

Edmonds says that's not good enough and that he wants to meet with Horn and not his staff.

"The bottom line is, Horn makes the decisions," he said. "Why can't I talk with him personally? I'll take whatever time with him I can get ---- however many months down the line it is. But he has continued to blow (the group) off."

Horn, who lives in Valley Center, represents the county's Fifth Distri ct, which stretches from Carlsbad to Camp Pendleton and east to the Imperial County line. It covers nearly 1,800 square miles, includes four cities and a population of about 650,000.

Much of the district is unincorporated county land, which means it is governed by county rules and subject to supervisors' land-use decisions. For people living in unincorporated communities in the district, Horn is their representative in county government.

Keith Simpson, a former chairman and current member of the Valley Center Planning Group, said he's often had problems reaching Horn.

"During my years as the chairperson for the Valley Center Planning Group, I periodically reached out to Mr. Horn, but his staff blocked access," Simpson said. "It wasn't that our communication was limited ---- he never talked with me or with the planning group in any way."

Bonsall Sponsor Group member Mark Lintner said he also rarely sees Horn at meetings or community events other than the annual one-day Fallbrook Avocado Festival.

When it comes to meeting with any of his constituents, the 65-year-old Horn said he follows a process. Anyone requesting a meeting is asked to call his office and speak to the receptionist, who will guide the call to the appropriate member of his staff.

The staffer will try to resolve the matter or forward the constituent to Wonsley, Horn said. Wonsley is in charge of arranging a meetings if they are warranted, he said.

"That's why I have staff," Horn said. "That's why I pay staff."

Elected officials are not generally required to keep precise calendars of their appointments, but it is good policy to keep one, said Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, an open government watchdog group.

Scheer said it is especially important for elected officials to make themselves available to the public as much as possible, and to be transparent about whom they meet with.

"T he reason we have local elected officials is so that people can talk to them," Scheer said. "Otherwise, they are not being represented."

'Bill doesn't have time'

Not everyone in Horn's district agrees that he's often unreachable.

Bob Leonard, executive director of the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce, said Horn is reachable, often attending meetings in Fallbrook and community events such as the annual Avocado Festival.

"How much more accessible can you be?" Leonard asked, referring to the popular festival that attracts as many as 70,000 people each year.

Leonard said he understands that Horn has to rely on his staff to attend to his constituents.

"Bill doesn't have time to meet with anybody and everybody on everything," Leonard said. "Some people think that's shunning them. To me, that's handling his time."

Margarette Morgan, chairwoman of the Bonsall Sponsor Group, said she has good access to Horn's staff. But personal meetings with Horn have been rare, she said.

"It's a process to meet with Bill," she said. "You have to deal with the fact that he's not available 24/7. I work through the ranks and through (chief of staff) Wonsley."

She said Horn doesn't attend the group's monthly meetings but has initiated changes in the group's leadership when he found it necessary. Horn appoints the sponsor group's members.

Now serving his fourth four-year term as supervisor, Horn beat former state Assemblyman Bruce Thompson, a fellow Republican, in a June 2006 election. Horn received 52 percent of the vote compared with Thompson's 47 percent.

During the campaign, Thompson said the supervisor had a reputation for treating constituents "like he was king and they're the servants."

No visibility

Horn deflected criticisms during the 2006 campaign, calling them personal attacks. He also criticized the news media for reporting the attacks, which he said was the reason why the r ace was close.

"My opponent got personal, and you guys spent all your time whacking at me," Horn said at the time.

Last year, Horn was also criticized by some constituents because of his lack of visibility during the October wildfires that burned large parts of his district. The supervisor rarely participated in the televised news conferences attended by other local representatives.

When asked about it, Horn's spokesman, John Culea, told San Diego CityBeat: "His constituents knew where he was."

On Nov. 2, Horn released a "diary" outlining his whereabouts during the fires. The document said he visited various parts of his district and was in contact with emergency officials throughout.

"While others grandstand, I've always believed that my place was on the field," Horn wrote.

The California First Amendment Coalition's Scheer said that how politicians communicate with the public is a matter of individual style.

"My preference is for po liticians that meet with the people they represent, but it's not a surprise that some politicians seek groups that are supportive and avoid those that disagree," he said.

In an public announcement released via e-mail Thursday, Horn outlined the procedures to contact him.

"I welcome input from community groups, individuals, businesses, schools, charitable organizations ---- the more information you can provide me through my staff, the better it helps me reach decisions that are in the best interest of our county," Horn wrote in the release.

Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com. Contact staff writer Darryn Bennett at (760) 740-5420 or dmbennett@nctimes.com.

 

Charlene Sez:  Contact Rick Landavazo for Horn's most recent email pledging undying accessibility to all his constituents:  Landavaz@owl.csusm.edu




------ End of Forwarded Message