If Fresno mayoral candidate Henry T. Perea is going to attack opponent Ashley Swearengin, he needs to find an issue with a bit more substance. Perea's complaint that Swearengin favors capping general fund spending on police and fire services is weak.
The clumsy tactic hasn't helped Perea, and even made it uncomfortable for the public safety unions, which Perea enlisted to help launch the attack on Swearengin. This incident confirms our judgment that Swearengin is the best-qualified candidate to succeed Mayor Alan Autry.
The Fresno Police Officers Association said Thursday that a 2003 Regional Jobs Initiative report that Swearengin helped write as head of the RJI suggested she backed a cap on public safety spending. That is not her position, and Perea knows it.
The biggest hole in Perea's argument is that he voted for this report when it came before the Fresno City Council, and never disassociated himself from the document. If he thought this statement was such a big deal, why did it take him five years to raise it?
Perea now says the council vote, which was unanimous, was to accept the RJI plan, and that did not mean that he endorsed its contents. But even then he could have said that while he supports the RJI, he does not support the statement about capping public safety spending. The candidate's five-year silence on the issue is very telling.
Perea also is distorting the report's content. This was part of a discussion on ways to improve public safety. One possibility mentioned was a public safety tax, which would replace city funds. That option was never pursued.
Perea is trying to have it both ways. If this were a substantive proposal to cap public safety funding, Perea should not have voted for the plan, and he should have attacked the idea at the time. He didn't, and that was because this was one of many options being discussed in a lengthy report on the RJI.
For Perea to now say this was a serious proposal is an indictment of his service on the council. He either didn't know what he was voting for or did know but stood silent until he was a candidate for mayor.
Swearengin's position is clear on public safety funding. It is a top priority. It's Perea's position that we're not too sure of.
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