He's no saint

Dear Editor:

Candidate Semrau's self-annointed status as the patron saint of affordable housing is hogwash. As far as I can tell, anything he's ever done, he's done for the money. Any housing he ever built was required of him by law, under code provisions that granted him valuable free market and other development rights in return, all of which he exploited. And even that wasn't enough for him. He has a record of adamantly trying to drive up the price of those required housing units, all of which turned into money in his pocket.

There have been many locals over the last three decades who have worked for no compensation for the housing program, as housing board members, as volunteer finance and building and land use experts, as political activists for community affordable housing. Truscott Place is named in the memory of one of them, Harry Truscott, a tireless housing volunteer who crunched numbers and planned projects and pored over spreadsheets for free, as a volunteer, simply because he was committed to the public good.

Mick Ireland has similarly contributed his time and passion for the community good to the housing program, to the point that when a housing issue comes up, we take for granted that he will apply his advocacy and good judgment.

I don't afford equal status to good soldiers and calculating mercenaries. I'm voting for Mick.

Frank Peters
Woody Creek