Published on the Menlo Park email website is a letter to officials in Menlo Park

Web Link

from Charles Bernstein, a candidate for Menlo Park council.

It starts with:

Please accept this letter as my vigorous objection to the

ballot language of the Argument For Measure T (Gateway

Project) and Rebuttal to Argument Against Measure T. While

the documents contain a number of distortions, they contain

one outright lie that must be removed.

...........

continues with

That being said, the statement from the Rebuttal to

Argument Against Measure T that crosses the line into

absolute falsehood is the following:

“FACT: Menlo Gateway is projected to net … $600,000

annually for schools in Menlo Park.”

This is a clear and blatant lie designed to counter the

valid argument against the project that the three

elementary school districts serving Menlo Park children

(Menlo Park, Las Lomitas, Ravenswood) will not get one

penny of property taxes or impact fees despite the

projection that their populations will grow as a result of

this project because all of those monies would be directed

to the Redwood City School District. If there is a

legitimate rebuttal to the opponents’ claim, it should be

advanced. If not, a lie should not be a permissible

substitute, especially when made by former city council

members and other community leaders.

Serious charges for sure.

Mayor Cline and Kelly Fergusson were as I recall put in charge of writing the ballot arguments. They must be the responsible City officials along with City staff who wrote these.