In her Sept. 9 column, “Local politics beats the national variety any time,” Sue Lempert is incorrect and misstates the cause of the cost of the new Foster City school. The Nov. 20, 2018 Daily Journal story, “School construction deal off in Foster City,” said: “Officials have been grappling for years with the project budget, as financial overruns forced the school district to begin trimming designs in an effort to cut costs.” The cost and budget overruns are also documented in your newspaper, as early as one month after the original sale agreement was signed in November 2016.
Increasing cost was not a result of me. In fact, The district walked away from Westlake who was escalating cost exponentially. Now the project is coming in under budget in 2016 dollars and under the fair bid process I fought for. While I respect Sue’s past service, she should read the articles in your newspaper for research and accuracy for her opinion.
On a separate note, Linda Koelling’s letter “Foster City recall” in the same edition was equally non-factual. I have 97% council attendance record. Koelling left the city with a $3.5 million yearly deficit and only $11 million in reserves. Eight years later, we have $80 million in reserves and a $7.9 million surplus.
Linda lacked the business acumen to run the city and her personal and business losses are well documented. Her employees testified and were deposed as to her unethical practices. In short, Linda and I hold different ethical standards. I based mine on facts and standards; she has consistently based hers on opinion and convenience.
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Thank you SMDJ for publishing this.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.