Its been more than two weeks since the Press Enterprise wrote a special report that made the front page of the Sunday paper, but I've been anxious to respond to the ludacris hype that was passed for newsworthy work. The title says: Some Temecula City Council members profit from ties with southwest Riverside County developers, Cashing In On Growth by David Danelski. The article is on the front page of the Sunday paper and when you open the paper up it continues on three other pages. The title at the top of the inside pages reads: "Unusual Situation" and Public, Private Concerns in super large text font.
I was completely appalled by this article. I barely got through the first part of the article because it basically states and then repeats various connections of city council members to Dan Stephenson, owner of Rancon Real Estate Corporation. The third paragraph of the article quotes Peter Thorson, Temecula city attorney as saying "none of the coucilmen has violated conflict of interest laws." You wouldn't be able to tell that was the case by the headlines and the tone of the rest of the article. It sounds very much to me like these council members and Mr. Stephenson are being charged guilty by association.
Of course, a wise person once asked me if I would roll over and die if I read my own obituary in the paper too.
Who cares if Jeff Comerchero was facing foreclosure in 1998. Poor guy. A lot of people have been in that situation. Mr. Danelski, you state this fact twice as if stating it the second time is going to make his well being directly connected to the alleged "inappropriate" action. And I personally work with Ron Roberts, Jr. One of the nicest, hardest working guys I've met. To insinuate that there is inappropriate relationships here because of his father is ridiculous. I bet his clients were shaking their heads when they read the mess which you called the Sunday paper too. The rest of the connections that were pointed out clearly were about Temecula City Council members and the business they do outside of Temecula. Again, you point out Peter Thorson, attorney who says no wrong doing has been done and any conflict of interest laws are being followed. These mountains are really mole hills when you get down and look at them.
Its no secret that the Dominegoni Family and Al Rattan are the evil forces behind the article. Somebody got their nose out of joint and a reporter smelled a juicy story to spin and voila. Instant Sunday paper fodder. Its funny though because you couldn't pick on a brighter protanganist that Dan Stephenson. He's the Luke Skywalker of Temecula Valley. His jedi mastery of "the force" has given him enough light to fill the whole valley. You can see the it everywhere you go - just try walking by the Old Town Temecula Theater generously subsidized by Dan and Beverly Stephenson, or go the the Temecula Valley International Film and Music Festival where the top prize is named after said benefactor. Funny thing that you may not know about these things is that the man doesn't do these things to put into a press release and have it flashed across the news. He does these things because he continues to give back to his community. This is the way its always been for him.
Dan Stephenson is a man that I very much respect. Funny thing, I think a lot of people in the valley who know him or of his work respect him too. I can only imagine the backlash of letters to the editor that you must have received for such a piece of work as this article on the front page of the Sunday paper. Was it a coincidence Rancon Real Estate recently pulled much of its print advertising budget to put it into a large Realtor.com advertising campaign? Yes, believe it Press Enterprise. Rancon just spent a huge amount of money on internet advertising when other companies are shutting doors, firing agents and managers, and cutting back in all ways possible. After this slanderous article, I wouldn't blame them for pulling their advertising in the Press Enterprise completely.
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