This photo was sent to me by an observant citizen. Please notice that this land owner seems to collect political signs as the Vote No on Library and the Eric Peter signs were from two years ago.
I took a special interest in this photo, as over 40 of my 60 signs were stolen during my campaign to educate the public as to the actual costs of the proposed Library Lift Levy. During the course of the campaign I received a call at home one evening from a County Sheriff Deputy. He informed me that someone from the library committee called and said that I was stealing their signs. I told him that that was very rich as I was the one who had lost over 30 signs at that point. I visited the Sheriffs office the next day with a list of the signs that I had lost and their locations. The sheriff said that he could do nothing as I had no proof of who was stealing the signs.
Upon seeing this photo, I again called the Sheriffs dept. I expressed a very strong interest as to why this person had one of my signs that had been stolen. After all, each of my signs had my name on it as was required by law. The Deputy sheriff told me that she would look into my claim if I sent them the photo for evidence. The sheriff’s Dept. visited the location of the home with the signs on two occasions. They recovered my sign and issued the land owner, Beth Helstein, a citation for possession of stolen election material(a misdemeanor). Her first arraignment will be before a judge on Sept. 10. (Beth Helstein was the spokes person for Yes for the Library Levy Committee which held a question and answer session at the Mullis Center on July 25th.)
My concern is not about a $15. sign or an aggregate of over $600. in signs that were stolen. It is about what happens in a Democracy when one side does not allow opposing opinions and all facts to be heard. Having over 2/3 of my signs stolen certainly affected my ability to reach the public and thus the election outcome. As a response to the stealing of my signs, I decided to send a mailer to all residents of San Juan Island to inform them of the exact costs of this levy lift. The pro library levy lift groups heard about my mailer and proceeded to spread lies on social media and print media that my financial information was misinformation. Every financial fact on my mailer had been vetted by our current county assessor. The San Juan Journal published a letter of mine on July 24th. in which I went over my math and the fact that it had been approved by the County Assessor. Nonetheless the math “challenged" in the community continued to spread lies about me personally and the information that I was providing.
This Library Lift Levy was essentially a magicians trick from the beginning . The first part of the trick was the scheduling this expensive Levy vote during a primary election in August. Many voters were not here, were busy with summer or thought the Aug. 6 election was only a primary vote. The Library knew that it could get most all of its supporters to vote YES by constant reminders to their mailboxes or email addresses. That gave them a percentage advantage in an election that only had a 54% voter turnout(but a 100% library advocate turnout). The second part of the trick was to never inform the public as to the actual cost to the taxpayers that his levy would result in. Yes, they would mention 16 cents per thousand dollar assessment, but they knew that the average person couldn’t comprehend what that meant. I wanted the taxpayer to know that a yes was going to mean a payment to the library of an additional $80,000. per month. As a result of this levy passing, the library will receive $210,000. per month in our tax money starting in 2025. I think that an honest election with no information interference would have prevented this financial tragedy for the San Juan Island taxpayers.
Royce Meyerott
San Juan Island
