Simi Candidate Says Smear Note Meant to Halt Campaign

A Simi Valley City Council candidate charged Wednesday that an anonymous letter writer tried to force her out of the race by sending a mudslinging note to her boss, the president of Simi Valley Bank.

Barbara Williamson, a bank vice president and a city planning commissioner, said she made the note public to show her commitment to running and to denounce negative campaign tactics.

Bank President Dick Riggs said he received the typewritten note at the Los Angeles Avenue office in Monday’s mail and gave it to the candidate. The note, made public by Williamson, stated that if she runs for council, “facts about her past will be strongly viewed in public.”

The note then alleges that Williamson had an affair with a married man and that she had resigned as president of the Boys & Girls Club of Simi Valley “due to her incompetence.”

Riggs said copies of the note also were addressed to the bank’s board of directors as well as to two other Simi Valley Bank branches. He declined to comment on the content of the note but said the bank has not urged Williamson, an 11-year employee, to end her campaign.

Williamson, 47, said the note’s allegations were absolutely false.

“I didn’t want this hanging over my head,” she said of her decision to release the note. “I’ll take my chances with the general public. They know what dirty tricks are all about.” Williamson is one of 10 people who have taken out papers to run for two City Council seats in the Nov. 3 election.

Although the writer of the carefully worded note did not directly vow to attack Williamson’s character if she runs, the candidate said she views the note as a threat.

“They sent that letter during the filing period,” she said. “The deadline for filing is Friday. I think that whoever is behind this knows that I took the papers out, but they don’t want me to turn my papers in. They thought that if they sent the letters, it would stop me from turning the papers in.”

“I’ve been in this business for 20 years and run hundreds of campaigns,” said Jim Dantona, Williamson’s campaign consultant, “and this is a threat, a mudslinging tactic used in many campaigns to force candidates out of the race or to silence them on an issue.”

Dantona recently dropped his own Simi Valley City Council bid to help Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Williamson declined to discuss in detail the first allegation concerning an affair. “It’s not factual,” she said. “I’m not going to bend to their whims to get into it.”

Concerning the second charge, she said she stepped down just before the end of her second year as president of the Boys & Girls Club to pursue other community service projects. She said she did not do so under pressure or any cloud of controversy.

Williamson said she has continued to donate time to the club, assisting this year in its fund-raising auction and golf tournament.

Rick Fields, who was executive director of the club during Williamson’s presidency in 1986 and 1987, said, “Normally, I don’t respond to anything that’s anonymous, but I hate to see people get a bad rap.”

Fields, who now serves on the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District Board, said of Williamson:

“During her time with the Boys & Girls Club, we significantly increased the number of kids who were participating. We increased community awareness of the club. We also increased fund-raising by $100,000 a year during her involvement with the club.”

Williamson said she believes the note was sent by someone who does not want to see her in office--but not by a rival council candidate.

One of those candidates, attorney Tim Hodge, said Wednesday, “I’m shocked about this. It does cause one to pause and wonder if that kind of preposterous tactic is going to infect the campaign.”

Steve Frank, a political consultant who is running for mayor, said personal attacks commonly surface in Simi Valley campaigns. But he said he did not expect Williamson to be a target.

“There’s no more decent, effective and concerned individual in this town than Barbara Williamson,” he said. “You don’t do this against people you don’t perceive to be a threat.”

Frank added, “I’m proud that Barbara made this public. That’s the only way you deal with blackmailers.”