Frustrating misstatements — Peter Gelblum

Dear Editor:
In a play I’m currently rehearsing, the character I play expresses frustration with others who keep ignoring what he’s been telling them, saying “I keep telling you …”
That’s how I feel about the letter from Nick Naccari, who apparently showed up dressed up like the Mad Hatter (or a clown?) at the Sept. 21 SLVWD meeting and then wrote a letter to the Press Banner repeating falsehoods that have been repeatedly debunked in these very pages.
Contrary to Mr. Naccari’s letter: (1) the Valley Women’s Club (VWC) does not “annually” get “thousands in grants from ratepayers’ funds;” (2) Eric Hammer’s mother, Mary Hammer, is not “very prominent” in the VWC; and, (3) I did not write my letters in my capacity as Vice President of the VWC.
The facts are these: (1) in all of recorded history, the VWC has received three grants from the SLVWD (in 2007, 2009, and 2011, all before Eric Hammer was an SLVWD director), all of which the VWC applied for in open competition with other organizations, and all of which have benefited the entire SLV in accordance with the VWC’s mission (getting cigarette butts out of the watershed and educating the public about pollution and the watershed); (2) Mary Hammer has not been on the Board or otherwise directly involved with the VWC for several years; and (3) my letters expressed my own opinions, not the opinions of the VWC. The VWC as an organization, and I, in my capacity as vice-president, have no position on the recent rate increase or the SLVWD directors. The VWC is a small part of my life, and my position there does not disqualify me from expressing my opinion on SLV events. (It’s also curious that Mr. Naccari slams four of the SLVWD directors, but doesn’t include Bill Smallman, who voted FOR the rate hike along with the other directors.)
It’s bad enough that the recent debate about the SLVWD has been replete with misstatements of fact, but is it really necessary to repeat them over and over again?
Peter Gelblum, Boulder Creek