Editor:

How outrageous can you get? Using smear tactics in OUR Yodeler?

I just received my September-October Yodeler and read it expecting quality articles and important news about the upcoming elections, but instead I read a good imitation of the tabloid press.

To my horror, instead of only talking about why you support Jesse Arreguin for City Council in District 4 [page 10], Berkeley, you do a hatchet job of me and you drag my candidacy, with no facts whatsoever, through the mud. I am the major candidate in this race, and by innuendo and character assassination you malign my "grassroots" campaign and my true support, both in the city and in District 4.

I am a 28 year member of the Sierra Club, I have the endorsement of EVERY candidate in this Berkeley City election endorsed by the Club, as well as the endorsement of Loni Hancock and Nancy Skinner and you use the most reprehensible lies to portray me.

Shame on you Yodeler. Shame on you Sierra Club, my club.

I have an impeccable environmental record, I strongly support Sierra Club positions on green, sustainable development along transportation corridors as well as BRT. Over 100 neighbors in District 4 have already endorsed my candidacy, and yet you write:

"Jesse's is a grassroots campaign, relying on volunteers to compete against a heavily financed Chamber of Commerce effort."

Where do these accusations come from?

Who wrote these lies?

I demand a retraction - now.

This borders on slander.

This statement of support for Jesse, no, these lies about me, are the lowest form of disinformation I have ever read.

How can you call yourself a responsible, respectable component of our community if you conduct yourself in such an unscrupulous and immoral manner?

Terry Doran

Sierra Club response.

The article made no reference to any candidate other than Jesse Arreguin.

We appreciate Doran's statement of support for several Sierra Club positions, but in his service on the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) and the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC), his support for Sierra Club positions has been mixed at best. In particular, Doran voted against the Sierra Club-endorsed consensus plan for green, sustainable development and improved transit in downtown Berkeley, approved by the DAPAC 17 - 4. On ZAB he voted, contrary to local Club policy, for projects which did not include at least 20% affordable housing.

Terry Doran does not have the endorsement of Sierra Club-endorsed John Selawsky, running for re-election to the School Board, and Jesse shares the endorsement of Councilmember Max Anderson.

The Yodeler should have stated that we expected well-financed opposition funded by big-business interests and the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce or its associated political-action committee - as happened in the final days of the campaign to Dona Spring, our endorsed candidate in this district, four years ago.

Because of Jesse Arreguin's leadership on downtown green density with increased open space, affordable housing, green construction, energy conservation and choice, embedded-energy building preservation and reuse, transit incentives and expansion, zero waste, expanded recycling, and an effective Climate Action Plan, both as a Club activist and on the Berkeley Rent and Zoning Boards, the Sierra Club confidently stands behind its endorsement of Arreguin for City Council in District 4.