In the race for a seat on the Atherton City Council, the top fundraisers were council member Cary Wiest and challenger Christine David, who each loaned themselves close to $6,000, according to campaign disclosures for the period starting Sept. 20 and ending Oct. 17.
There are among the four candidates running for two seats, which includes incumbent Elizabeth Lewis and challenger Diana Hawkins-Manuelian.
Wiest's committee reported raising $6,323, which includes a $5,925 loan from himself and $100 from retired Atherton resident Robert Polito. Wiest spent $6,837 on printing, campaign mailers and postage. View Wiest's report here.
David's committee raised $6,100, including a $5,500 loan to herself. Donors to her campaign during this period were: Michael and Deborah Linton, Ancestry.com executive, $200; David Sikes, Google executive, $100; Debbie Cardineau, self-employed, $100; Walter Sleeth, retired Atherton resident, $100; and Michael McPherson, $100. She spent $3,652 on Facebook advertising, campaign mailers, postage, Google tools and website updates. View David's report here.
Hawkins-Manuelian's committee said it raised $267. Donations came from Gretchen Von Gustlin, retired Atherton resident, $97; David Pettigrew, artist, $97; and Kamran Shirazi, founder, Wrap N Store, $24. She spent $1,662 on marketing, Zoom tech support, campaign literature, postage, postcards, artwork for her website and signs, printing and email services. View her report here.
Statements show that Vice Mayor Lewis plans to raise and spend less than $2,000, which excuses her from filing campaign finance reports.
Comments
Registered user
Menlo Park: Park Forest
on Oct 26, 2020 at 7:37 pm
Registered user
on Oct 26, 2020 at 7:37 pm
I strongly support both David and Hawkins-Manuelian.
They will bring new life to the council.
[Portion removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language]
Registered user
Menlo Park: Park Forest
on Oct 28, 2020 at 5:21 pm
Registered user
on Oct 28, 2020 at 5:21 pm
I have watched every minute of this movie and Wiest was the instigator of the attempt to detach from the Fire District and has kept this ill considered and selfish effort going for over four years. Weist is not only a Robin Hood is reverse by attempting to steal money and fire services from East Palo Alto and Menlo Park but he is also stupid in that what he proposes will not lower the taxes of Atherton residents by a single penny.
The Weekly has kindly allowed two of the three misguided Atherton Town Council members who continue to demand that Atherton be treated differently than the rest of the Fire District. to publish an Opinion Piece accusing "the Mayor and at least one candidate (for Town Council) of misleading readers about the position of the town." These three 1% ers want a tax refund paid for by the losers and suckers.
Their misguided premise is that "The question involves the unusually high cost of those (fire) services to Atherton."
They are operating from a misguided premise.
Emergency services are not a metered service like water and electricity.
Emergency services are just like police services, national defense, public schools, public health, CHP etc and in our society we have decided that those services will be paid for by property and income taxes therefore the wealthy 1% pay far more FOR ALL OF THOSE SERVICES than do the residents of East Palo Alto.
Arguing how much more they pay for a particular public service is a meaningless discussion. Just imagine how much more Atherton residents pay for our national defense than do the poorer citizens of our country - and Atherton has never asked for more national defense for Atherton. Atherton pays much more per enrolled Atherton student in the SUHSD as do the residents of Menlo Park but these crazies never acknowledge that fact.
The basis of this problem a total lack of understanding of the philosophical basis of our tax systems by Wiest, Widmer and Lempres.
If instead Wiest, Widmer and Lempres want to continue to pursue their false narrative then they should produce comparable numbers for the cost of providing all the other public services, one by one, to Atherton vs how much Atherton residents pay for each of those services.
The public school one is an easy one to get both cost per student enrolled in the public schools and the taxes paid by Atherton residents to the school districts. At least everybody in Atherton gets fire services while few Atherton residents enjoy the benefits of a public school education.
I predict that Wiest, Widmer and Lempres will meet this challenge with a stoney silence.