Ontario Mayoral Rivals Bicker Over Mysterious Mailing

The Ontario mayoral election may be 13 months away, but things already are getting a little strange.

The candidates, incumbent Gary Ovitt and Councilwoman Debbie Acker, are political rivals who often clash.

But this week, Acker publicly accused the mayor of sending her and her husband, Jeff, two envelopes with blank paper inside in a ploy to learn the couple’s new address in Ontario.

The Ackers recently moved, and she contends Ovitt was trying to demonstrate that her new address is outside the city or that her husband, an Ontario school board candidate, now lives outside the school district--neither of which is true, she said.

“It concerns me, whoever it is,” Debbie Acker said. “It is like covert activity. This is a form of harassment.”

Instructions on the envelopes directed the post office not to forward the letters but to return them to the sender with the correct address. The return address on the envelopes is a postal box registered to a business owned by Ovitt’s wife, Sue.

The post office, however, forwarded the letters to Acker’s new home.

Ovitt did not respond to Acker’s accusations, made during this week’s City Council meeting, except to correct her on the name of his wife’s business, Championship Management Events. But afterward, the mayor denied he or his wife had mailed the envelopes.

“We didn’t do it and we don’t know who did,” Ovitt said.

Acker said she has asked Police Chief Lloyd Scharf to check the envelopes for fingerprints.

“I don’t know if it is him until I see the fingerprints,” Acker said. “But I don’t know why somebody would use his wife’s post office box. How many people would even know it? It is somewhat suspicious.”

Ovitt called the whole affair “bizarre,” and said he was at a loss to explain why someone would use his wife’s post office box.

Nick Silva, manager of customer services for the U.S. Postal Service in Ontario, said federal law prohibits the post office from giving out a new address requested by someone.

“We can’t release the information because the person may be a stalker,” Silva said.