SAPOA

Will SAPOA Tactics Backfire?

Yesterday’s post regarding Kris Adams, president of the Salisbury Area Property Owners’ Association (SAPOA), her daughter Alex, and newly elected Salisbury councilman Tim Spies should be cause for concern to all Salisbury voters. Are these tactics the actions of a disturbed woman or an organized attempt to intimidate elected officials who are not already firmly in their grasp?

On this question, we shouldn’t even speculate at this time. Only time will confirm whether or not Monday’s call to the Salisbury Police was an isolated and bizarre act or a pattern of behavior. However, we believe that we should all be reminded of past behavior by related parties so that we can be vigilant as to any future action.

• Several years ago I was at a dinner with family and friends. After we had eaten, an acquaintance came to our table for a visit. This person, a fairly prominent businessman in Salisbury, commended me for “taking (then Salisbury mayor) Barrie Tilghman to task” and further remarked that literally having to wade through drug dealers and hookers to get to his office door each morning was having an adverse effect on his business. After thanking him I asked why he and his business colleagues didn’t show up at council meetings and demand that the city do a better job. His reply? Anyone who dares show up to council meetings on a Monday night to complain is met Tuesday morning with a cadre of code compliance officers followed by a stiff fine for offenses real or imagined.
  
• In 2007, SAPOA members delivered letter to their tenants denouncing council candidates Terry Cohen and Tim Spies. Some went so far as to claim that tenants would lose their abodes if Cohen and Spies were elected.
  
• In 2009, mayoral candidate Jim Ireton not only had to campaign for office but had to endure multiple anonymous mass mailings containing some of the most vile and hateful garbage I have witnessed in over 35 years of political involvement.
  
• During the same campaign, Ireton and councilwoman Debbie Campbell were the victims of gross misrepresentations by Kris Adams’ daughter Alex. Ironically, the younger Ms. Adams did so while (falsely) claiming to be a spokesperson for the Salisbury University student government. When made aware of this, the SU student government had to step in and denounce Ms. Adams’ actions.
  
• SAPOA members have publicly attacked supporters of Mayor Ireton’s “Safe Streets” package (a measure that SbyNEWS does not fully support) and compared them to Nazis.

These are just a few examples of past behavior that can be traced to SAPOA members and their political allies.

While this site, and this writer, have been accused of “intimidating” public officials and of causing good candidates to not run for public office, we find it amusing that I have always signed my work and stood by any charge I have leveled. Yet, we see a demonstrable pattern of SAPOA members and their allies anonymously attacking candidates and hurling slurs at people whose greatest crimes are exercising their God-given rights to speak their mind and freely assemble.

The most ironic charge thrown at SAPOA’s political opponents (enemies, in SAPOA’s eyes) is that they somehow “hate renters”. IF Mayor Ireton’s “Tenant Bill of Rights” actually becomes law this year, we wonder how SAPOA and its allies will attempt to manage the spin.

For the present Salisbury citizens should simply be vigilant. As the prospectus says – “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.” We know from experience that Salisbury voters are decreasingly willing to believe the hateful, ridiculous, and anonymous charges thrown out by SAPOA members and their allies. Simply look at the last three city elections. We can only hope that this past week’s incident is a foolish act by an individual. If a pattern emerges, recent history indicates that these tactics will backfire and SAPOA’s own actions could be the cause of its worst nightmares.