You are still wrong, Pam Slater-Price. Dave Roberts isn’t right For County Supervisor because he’s just like you.

Encinitas Mayor Kristin Gaspar will be elected to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, probably by more than six to eight percentage points. Former Supervisor Pam Slater-Price doesn’t want that to happen. She overlooks Dave Roberts’ partisan politicking with County funds and chalks it up to inexperience:

“There was some learning curve involved and I think that he is now passed that,” she said. “I think that he’s doing an excellent job. The truth of the matter is, he’s the only one right on the issues.”

Slater-Price said he’s the “only one right on the issues.” That statement is astounding when you consider that Roberts votes with his Republican colleagues on the Board over 80 percent of the time, like Slater-Price did. If Dave Roberts is the “only one right on the issues,” Pam Slater-price was a failed Supervisor. How then did she get re-elected as often as she did?

Slater-Price was re-elected with taxpayer-funded campaign war chests. While she criticized Gaspar’s support from contractors and real estate agents, Slater-Price taught Dave Roberts how to gain support from wealthy people by allocating the County Supervisor’s discretionary funds to their chosen charities. Slater-Price has been doing that for twenty years. She loved having her picture taken with rich people:

But unlike the philanthropists she appeared beside, the donations that landed her there were county taxpayer dollars, not her personal wealth. Other supervisors received similar kudos for their grants. The whom-to-thank issue grew so large that the board revised the rule to insist recipients thank the county overall.

Slater-Price has also been criticized for being too close to organizations she funds.

She had to pay a state fine after she failed to report free tickets to The Old Globe and the San Diego Opera. She said it was an oversight and reimbursed the organizations personally. Mainly Mozart brought her along on a trip to Austria. And people who run or work at many of the organizations she’s funded have donated to her campaigns.

Slater-Price would fund an organization like the San Diego Opera and the board members would hold political fundraisers for her. The same thing happened for Dave Roberts:

Choreographer Jean Isaacs met Slater-Price when the supervisor’s daughter, now grown, took dance classes. Isaacs’ San Diego Dance Theatre has received nearly $390,000 from the supervisors over more than 10 years, around $350,000 of which Slater-Price designated.

Because of their tax-exempt status, nonprofit organizations can’t officially endorse one particular candidate. But their leaders and boards are homing in on arts-sympathetic ears.

“We’re all supposed to be not political,” Isaacs said. “But as a human being, who believes arts funding is important, I’m doing a fundraiser for Dave Roberts at my home.”

Roberts said he’d thoroughly examine the programs once inside, but he already knows he’d tighten application rules and ban gifts to the supervisors. He’s publicly proclaimed support for arts and culture as an economic engine.

See how that works? Give $500 to Roberts, get nine of your buddies to donate $500 to Roberts, and maybe Roberts will allocate twice as much money to your favorite charity. That sort of pay-for-play culture defined Slater-Price’s re-election campaigns.

This is all legal but it stinks to high heaven. While Gaspar’s campaign has support from contractors and real estate agents, there is no taxpayer funding expected. Roberts is beholden to the downtown philanthropy lobby and they expect him to pay up….just like Slater-Price did.