Another election day has arrived, and for those who actually read their voter guides carefully, I commend you for your patience and your civic due diligence. I would joke that there are only ten or eleven of you out there, but I acknowledge that we are a town that's chock full of nerds and overachievers, so there are probably a lot of you who by now have noticed the name of Dr. Terence Faulkner, J.D., who uses various titles as he pens his various Opponent's Arguments in the official SF Voter Information Pamphlet. Faulkner, a local Republican who lives in Park Merced, has been around for years, and it looks like some blog attention he got last year from us and others has caused one notable change in his m.o.: He's stopped using ALL CAPS in the arguments he's most passionate about.
At 71, Terence remains a clearly concerned citizen and fiscal conservative who takes it as his burden to submit arguments against virtually every ballot measure during every election year. One imagines his apartment littered with decaying old voter guides, proof of his recent life's work, not to mention signed photos of Ronald Reagan, and there's probably an elderly dog hobbling around too.
We know that he's the son of late Republican State Committeewoman Susan Faulkner, and back in 1980's he was the chairman of the San Francisco Republican Party for a couple of years. Nowadays he's a disgruntled member of the SF United Irish Cultural Center, and he likely doesn't leave the western edges of the city unless Jeb Bush is in town.
This year, Faulkner goes alternately by these titles, many of them well out of date: "United States President's Federal Executive Awards Committeman (1988)," "County Central Committeeman," "Past State of California Certified Farmers Market Advisory Board Member (1999 to 2005)," "Past Member of Regional Citizens Forum Board of Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG)."
Below, a selection of his greatest hits from this year's voter guide, in which his became the official Opponent's Arguments against Props A, B, C, and H.
Prop A
(The affordable housing bond measure.)
"Above all, political officeholders involved with these bonds will run up lots of campaign donations, to pay their always greedy election managers, polling services, electoral mailing houses, and media advisors. Somebody has to pay all those people.
Let’s not discuss the taxpayers of San FranciscoThat’s a very sad story: They’ll pay all the bills for the unneeded Proposition A spendingfest. It’s sort of like a modern version of the Vikings of the 9th and 10th Centuries. The dragonships arrivedand the coasts of medieval Europe got plundered and ravished.
At least San Francisco’s so-called 1City Fathers' are a bit more literate and better salesmen than the Vikings."
Prop B
(Extending parental leave to couples who are both city employees.)
"While there is a good case for granting liberal extra leave to mothers having babies, the rest of Proposition B—“parental leave” for male partners and couples adopting children—is outrageous.
It is just taxing away the money needed by other families.
The authors of Proposition B proclaim: “We can do even more for our families.” Indeed they can!
Don’t overtax families of non-City employees to over pay City employees.
The authors of Proposition B want to “allow San Francisco to remain a leader” in overtaxing non-City employees to grant unmerited pay to those who happen to work for the City.
When does tax become theft???"
Prop C
(Regulating expenditure lobbyists and forcing them to register with the Ethics Commission.)
"George Orwell (1903-1950) was born in Bengle, British India, educated at Eton, served in Burma’s Indian Imperial Police, saw the abuses of English colonialism, returned to Europe, fought with anti-Francoists in the Spanish Civil War, and became an author opposing totalitarianism with many of his novels, including 1984 and Animal Farm.
In Animal Farm, England’s Manor Farm is taken over in a barnyard revolution in the name of animal freedom and equality. Soon the pigs take power, their motto becoming: “ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS”.
San Francisco’s Ethics Commission, composed of a flock of appointees of City Hall officeholders, seem to have similar ideas about lobbyists.
Most local lobbyists are required to pay large registration fees, but employees of non-profit organizations unjustly ride for free.
Such abuses are to be expected when the Ethics Commission is not composed of independent citizenslike a civil or criminal grand jury.
The Ethics Commission, with a San Francisco City Charter amendment, needs to be isolated from direct City Hall control."
Prop H*
(Defining clean, renewable energy by the state definition and not PG&E's.)
"Supporters of Proposition H want to cost you money.
...Needless to say, passing Proposition H would also hurt local businesses and industries, damaging jobs, most unions, and helping to drive companies out of San Francisco. Don’t slow City employment.
Individual electrical bill payers would also see major increases in their rates.
Proposition H is bad news for San Francisco."
Vote “NO!” on expensive and selfish Proposition H—which openly hopes to increase your electric bills. Keep utility costs down. Lower is better."
Previously: Meet The Weird Guy From The S.F. Voter's Guide Who Wrote His Dissenting Opinions In All Caps
* Ed. Note: We left it out of our brief voter guide the other day, but it should be noted that Prop H is the one to vote for if you like clean energy, and you should vote NO on Prop G, unless you want PG&E to pull a little trick and compete with CleanPowerSF over the definition of what "clean energy" is.
