By Larry Hoffman

The idea of Dan Miller running for a county board position is frightening, because he’s demonstrated repeatedly over the years that he does not respect those with whom he disagrees. Here’s one specific example that I personally witnessed at a Grass Valley City Council meeting on May 13, 2008.

Councilman Dan Miller attacked the efforts of a local citizen who was leading an initiative (a right granted under California state law) to allow residents the opportunity to vote on Grass Valley land use changes.  After ranting about representative government, Miller said this about that individual and his supporters (2 hours and 29 minutes into the meeting – you can get a copy of the DVD at City Hall).

“I parallel it with the fact that — and this is historical fact — that Lenin started with a very small group of people, and got defeated several times, but he kept going until communism succeeded in the Soviet Union and spread throughout many nations of the world, and we know what happened to communism. Except for a couple of countries, communism spelled ruin and despair, and crisis for every one of those countries. I don’t want that type of individual sitting up here making decisions for the city of Grass Valley, for me and for my children.”

I was, and still am, outraged that Miller compared local citizens exercising their rights to Lenin and communism.  Earlier in the same meeting, Miller said about these same residents, “I feel like we’ve been beset upon by a small group of con artists.”  Is this the kind of supervisorial behavior we want for District 3 – name-calling, polarizing, labeling, disrespectful? I say it is not.

I am voting for Terry Lamphier because I see him treat everyone with respect and dignity.

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Larry Hoffman is a former Grass Valley Planning Commissioner.