by
George Wylie
Press Banner
May 31, 2012 | 2389 views | 41
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EDITOR, Annette Marcum has for several decades been a towering icon of both the San Lorenzo Valley and Scotts Valley communities. Her exhaustive and selfless work on several fronts, most notably as the leader of Valley Churches United Missions, has made each of our neighborhoods a much better place to live, particularly for those of us less fortunate. On May 11, Marcum published a letter in the Press-Banner (“Candidate’s experience worth gold”) which reflected her support for Bruce McPherson for 5th District Supervisor. Since then, she has received several malicious, obscene or intimidating phone calls, apparently from members of our community who are opposed to McPherson’s candidacy for supervisor. The calls have been serious enough to trigger an investigation by the sheriff’s department, which is currently under way. Of particular note was a difficult call she received from 5th District Supervisor candidate Eric Hammer, wherein Hammer emphatically stated how upset he was that she was supporting McPherson in the race for supervisor. Hammer’s call was highly improper in that it forced Marcum into the difficult and unnecessary position of having to defend her choice against his unsolicited challenges, on the fly and without warning or preparation whatsoever. We need real, competent and ethical leadership in the 5th District if we are to successfully navigate the difficult times in which we currently find ourselves. Hammer’s call to Marcum reflects an apparently different leadership style.
George Wylie, Brookdale
Editor’s note: Marcum reported to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office that she received more than six hang-up phone calls and one obscene call from a woman she didn’t recognize over two days.
Admission by the offender. Check
History of same. Check
Seems it is worthy of discussion.
Annette Marcum's Valley Churches United Missions decided from the start to rely just on community support rather than taking money from county government. The concern then was that taking taxpayer dollars from county government would cause significant strings to be attached.
Sure enough Valley Churches United has become the most successful San Lorenzo Valley nonprofit providing direct aid to over 1200 needy people in our community every single month. And because they have stayed clean of special interest money, they don't have to poster over politics. That's refreshing.
Annette Marcum has logged over 60,000 volunteer hours. No other valley nonprofit can claim anywhere near the level of success of Annette Marcum and Valley Churches United Missions.
I request that the good people who have taken the time to read this please contact Annette and let her know you support her and her organization.
Thank you for listening.
What a leader. Think about the kind of supervisor he would have been.
Time to pull some REAL leaders in the community together to put a stop to this. It's ridiculous.
(2) Regarding Eric Hammer calling Annette Marcum directly after she wrote a letter supporting his opponent, if I had known someone for several decades and had been taken unawares by them writing a letter of support for my opponent, I'd call or talk to them about it, too. It would be strange not to.
You start with a false assumption that everyone automatically supports Eric Hammer. And therefore any deviation from that is worthy of rage.
In the real world, the majority of valley residents supports moderation, intelligence, and kindness.
World view expansion is highly recommended.
it is quite obvious that you really don't know the real Ric Hammer, do you?
Interesting.
Fascinating.
Thanks for speaking up.
I know Annette and I find it hard to believe she's as vulnerable as George says. This is all a bunch of posturing... Sad state of affairs since I am pretty certain Annette and Mary Hammer have been friends for years and yet she couldn't handle a simple phone call. Unfortunate that politics comes before friendship. Well I guess that's nothing new since everyone seems the need to slam the VWC and VCUM can do no wrong. sad. really sad.
There lies the misinformation that has been spread about this issue.
To Sue Cize, yes, Eric's call and the harrassment calls were two separate things. She did not describe Eric's call as obscene or harrassing.
The obscene call was an anonymous woman who said a rude word to her and hung up. And then there were the "hang up" calls, I guess, though she didn't talk about those in my conversation with her. That's not okay, obviously.
To Don Smith, when I spoke with Annette at mid-day Monday she didn't indicate there had been any repetition of the harrassment, so unless she got another call after I talked to her, I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say it's getting worse.
Finally I'd like to encourage everyone posting comments here to try to keep a more courteous tone in the discourse - on both sides. I know it's tempting when writing anonymously to just let the emotions out, but it's not productive or pleasant to read, and it doesn't help either candidate or our ability as a community to move toward making things better in our Valley, which is the whole point of why we are supporting the candidates we support. Each side feels their candidate would help our community continue to get stronger and better. Attacking each other anonymously online doesn't help move us in that direction. Let's remember our higher motivation please. Thanks!
This critical race can be won by one vote, so please make yours count.
With great respect for you all,
Susan
http://www.communitytv.org/programs/online/5th-district-supervisor-candidate-forum
People have already made their choice. Now thanks to this courageous and appropriate letter from local Democrat and former candidate George Wylie, that choice is made even clearer.
Sadly, Eric, his mother, and Barbara Sprenger are all bullying people in order to win an election. Leadership by intimidation... NOT what we want for the 5th District!
As a lifelong Democrat, I am not voting my party lines in this race, as he is not the best candidate -- by far.
I have disagreed with both Eric and Mary from time to time and NEVER been subjected to such treatment, and I know others as well. I submit that it is the likes of people like you who have a personal vendetta for the Hammers for some reason (probably because you live on Boulder street). You can't seem to get it thru to your brain that it is a BOARD that makes decisions regarding the BCRPD and not just one person. You also can't seem to understand that this board has the courage to tackle tough decisions to make Boulder Creek a better place. I am sure the minute someone stands up and provides an alternative location that meets the needs of the entire community the BCRPD would consider it. You should vent you anger towards Scopazzi since he's the one that owns all the rentals and wanted to sell to help the community- oh wait, that's right... you don't get that part either...
Why was it so wrong for Eric to call her and express his displeasure in this rude and obnoxious behavior? I am certain Eric or anyone seriously a part of his campaign had nothing to do with this harassment, and I think it shows to the character of Eric Hammer to stand up and defend someone who is being wronged; Eric Hammer just showed that characteristic.
Are you now saying it is inappropriate for Hammer or his supporters to knock on her door while canvassing her neighborhood? I am not a Mcpherson supporter and I would not be offended by one of their supporters contacting me. I can be an adult about this, apparently so can Eric Hammer. too bad there are others who cannot and are just making a bad name for the candidates.
Think again not again...