Measure D Debate Continues

A that will be decided by voters on Tuesday, Nov. 8, is .

The No on D Committee has created a website, filled with charts drawn from details in the town's audits. But, said Yes on D campaign head Matt Hartwell-Herrero, the numbers of pulled out of context or used inappropriately to try and draw conclusions that are inaccurate.

"They don't seem to be interested in the substance of what's actually happening," said Hartwell-Herrero.

According to the Marin Independent Journal, No on D - made up of Susan Brandborg, Bill Parker, Jory Prum, and John Molloy - raised nearly twice as much money as the yes campaign, but the majority of that was in in-kind contributions from Prum to build the website and videos.

The Committee to Oppose Ballot Measure D, whose supporters include four residents who have run unsuccessfully for Town Council and a former councilwoman who failed in a bid for re-election, reported raising $6,365 between Sept. 15 and Oct. 22, more than twice the $3,100 that Friends of Measure D reported raising during the same period.

The Fairfax Police Officers Association and the Marin Professional Firefighters, Local 1775, each contributed $1,500 to the Friends of Measure D.

Jory Prum, a recording engineer who lost a bid for Fairfax Town Council in 2003, reported making in-kind contributions worth $4,950 to the Committee to Oppose Ballot Measure D. Prum built the group's website and helped produce a short video presentation that can be found there.

You can watch a video debate between Prum and Mayor Larry Bragman above, recorded by the Community Media Center of Marin.

The half-cent sales tax would raise Fairfax's sales tax to 8.5 percent, with all the money raised from the local increase -- approximately $200,000 a year -- going directly to the town's general fund.

Measure D has drawn the support of the entire council, the Fairfax Chamber, former Supervisor Hal Brown, and a number of prominent business owners who were initially against a full one-percent tax.

The key, said Hartwell-Herrero, is that overall the town is struggling and budget cuts have to be made. Focusing on trying to catch the town staff in an error misses the point.

"If they came to us and said this is what I think the solution is, then we'd have something meaningful to talk about," he said, pointing out that the union groups all agreed to paying part of their pension costs and that there were a number of town meetings about the sales tax. "Where was No on D when those discussions were happening?"

Prum was at the Fairfax Town Council meeting Wednesday night, Nov. 2, grilling town council members on details of the July financial statements -- pointing out what appeared to be an error in percentage calculations. Financial Director Michael Vivrette said he would look into the calculations and, if an error was made, correct it.

The concern, Prum has said, is that financial information appears to be very opaque, hard for the public to follow, and rarely questioned by the town council.

"The real concern," he said at the council meeting, "is that the financial statements for July, which should have been available months ago; this information is in the consent calendar and would have been approved without anyone noticing the error."