Editor:

As a witness of the many good acts of our various Boerne City Council members over the past months, I was outraged at the malicious and twisted advertising run by Boerne Forward this past week in the Boerne Star. 

Moreover, I would be outraged for any councilman or woman they targeted, because the ads are simply offensive.

Our mayor and City Council face many difficult decisions each day and I would like to believe they are trying to serve the best interests of their constituents—God knows they can’t be doing it for the paycheck! 

However, these ads from Boerne Forward suggest that any councilman’s quest for clarity and transparency in government is not in the people’s best interest. 

They suggest that any councilman who believes in providing for the support of, and protecting the integrity of one of our most valuable natural assets, Cibolo Nature Center, is not acting in the people’s best interest. 

Mostly, these ads suggest that any councilman who doesn’t automatically go along with the “group think” of a special interest organization is somehow unfit for council membership, and is therefore a “target.” 

Well, why not just run an ad that says “sit down and shut up, councilman?”  I guess we’d all like to see the councilman’s income tax returns next?  And while you’re at it, councilman, may I have a blood and urine sample? 

Isn’t it enough that these tactics have been hard enough to endure during the federal election campaign this year? Is it really necessary to stoop to this level over a City Council election in Boerne, Texas? 

As a member of the media in San Antonio, I know that, for better or worse, election laws do not allow a newspaper or media entity to edit or refuse copy based upon inclusion of erroneous or false information. However, this does not make the party or PAC placing the ad immune from lawsuit or from the retribution of the community at large.

To those involved with Boerne Forward; you are within your rights to publicly display your opinion and to promote your agenda. 

However, you face being held responsible by the public for the manner in which you have chosen to do so, and for the lack of context and accuracy contained in your ads.  To Boerne’s ladies and gentlemen of good conscience; if you know someone who is a member or associate of Boerne Forward, I urge you (and your friends and neighbors) to contact that person and let them know that you won’t stand for Boerne Forward’s outrageous, manipulative and negative electioneering. 

Does the fact that Boerne Forward has brought this ugly negative tactic to small-town politics tell you everything you need to know about this group’s future intentions?  I hope not. 

But unless we shine the light of public scrutiny upon those responsible for these tactics, where will it end? Which of our public servants will be their next target? The fact is that we won’t know until other upstanding citizens of great moral character have their integrity trashed by those, who through their utilization of this unnecessarily brutal act, have demonstrated that they have no integrity to begin with.

Let those realtors, developers, landowners, and other special interests hiding behind this PAC know that you condemn their decision to run these attack ads. 

Let them know that you will hold them personally responsible by making others in Boerne aware of their actions through their association with the organization. 

All it takes is asking people to abstain from utilizing the businesses or services these members provide or represent. 

It is often said that “those who have the money make the rules.” The citizens of Boerne must have the courage to withhold the money from those who, if by association alone, participate in and condone such reprehensible behavior. 

If we do this, groups such as Boerne Forward will either cease to exist, or be forced to play with a sense of decency and by fair rules.

Jeffrey Spencer

Boerne