From: Shoosh Crotzer
Morro Bay
The city of Morro Bay has not been thriving under our last few decades of poor leadership, going back to when Bill Yates single-handedly changed the role of mayor. The role of mayor used to be just part of the Council and to set agendas, and Yates changed it to one of self-importance, micro-management of staff and catering to only certain parts of our community - his special interests. During his tenure as mayor, our infrastructure suffered, and the people eventually voted him out of office.
Betty Winholtz, on the other hand, has been vigilant in her concern for the entire community, businesses and seniors alike. She cares about our environment and our residents as well as our business owners, and there are
no back-door dealings with Betty.
We voted Yates out of office after seeing the damage he did in our town. Let's not have short or distorted memories. Let's not go backwards and repeat past mistakes. Instead, elect Betty Winholtz as Mayor to lead our city. And, also vote for Jack Smith, who, along with Betty, will offer a fresh direction for our ailing town.
From: Nancy Walsh
Morro Bay
Great. The one person in print saying what is really going on in our screwed-up City Council meetings is gone. Can we get her back?
From: Jennifer Lawrence
Los Osos
Every month I head straight for the "Best Friends" page. Dr. Riordan's writing is informative, clever, and compassionate. Not only is this a great resource, but the learning to be better pet owners goes down even better with the fabulous dose of the animall pictures.
From: Betty Wenger
Morro Bay
Betty Winholtz is not only a business person in this community, she is a professional educator who is service oriented as well. She also has a good general business knowledge.
We need a mayor who will serve ALL the people of Morro Bay and do so professionally in manner and appearance. She researches all issues ; truly listens to other points of view, and makes decisions accordingly. She treats all people with respect and genuinely cares about their concerns.
I owned, operated, and lived at the Pleasant Inn Motel on Harbor Street from January 1996 to March 2005. Bill Yates would schedule street repairs on Morro Bay Boulevard and Main Street from late at night until early morning, using heavy loud equipment (jackhammers, etc.) on numerous nights in an area bordered by six to eight motels. So much for his concern about bringing tourists to Morro Bay! He gave the stores in the area the choice of time for this activity, but showed no concern for the motels. He also planned to close Harbor Street from Piney Way to the Embarcadero for paving on a Friday before a major holiday weekend, effectively closing off access to all the businesses on Harbor Street all day and early evening. He did change his mind after pressure was brought to bear. I feel he still thinks these kind of decisions were his alone to make instead of following proper channels. As mayor he catered to a very small segment of the citizenry and disregarded the concerns of many business people and others. Several times he made decisions that did negatively impact my business.
Sometimes you can judge a book by it's cover. The same out-dated Hawaiian shirt worn by Bill Yates is not professional and signals to me that Bill Yates is still thinking of another time and place. The message he sends with his Hawaiian shirts is that he would rather be in Hawaii on vacation than in Morro Bay. Morro Bay is not Hawaii.
As for making proper business decisions to help the city with its budget, how about the untimely and costly purchases made when he was mayor—of the Branigans property on Market Street and the old skating rink he had such grand plans for. We have lost money on those. There was also the unsuccessful Harbor View Project that he promoted that ended up having had little benefit to the city. His past record as a steward of the city's budget has been bad.
Betty Winholtz has demonstrated that she has the intelligence and good judgement to be mayor.
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