The Character Assassination of Murrieta Mayor Harry Ramos

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Murrieta Mayor Harry Ramos has not only been targeted for termination by his opposition, but they are pulling out all of the stops to ensure that his character is thoroughly assassinated.  The attackers don't care about the truth, or the damage they are causing Mr. Ramos, and his family.  Politics by the power players in Murrieta, in their opinion, transcends common decency.  For the crime of dissent, Mayor Harry Ramos is being annihilated.

When it was time for Harry Ramos to move into the position as mayor, a one year title rotated among the city council members since Murrieta is a general law city, there was discussion considering skipping him, not letting Ramos take his turn as mayor.  The accusations were that he was too much of a rookie, or that they felt he couldn't handle it.  The real reason for the hesitation to allow Ramos to be mayor, according to Harry's supporters, went way deeper than the excuses his opposition was tossing around.  The truth is that the power players don't like Harry Ramos because he refuses to play ball.  Ramos is consistently the odd man out during city council votes.  In the 4-1 votes we see, he has always been the "1".  He votes against high-density housing, and environmental strong-arm tactics.  Ramos is suspicious of "sustainable development," and often rejects Murrieta's stack-em-and-pack-em plans.

The United States Marine was discharged honorably with a disability received during his service to the country.  Originally from New York, he settled down in Murrieta with his family because he liked the family-first style of attitude he saw in the Southern California city.  Murrieta, tucked inside the Temecula Valley just north of San Diego County, is part of a conservative niche many Californians call the "new Orange County."  Despite its Republican shade of red, however, bully politics and leftist tactics still exist.  And now, for daring to stand in opposition of the power players in the area, Harry Ramos is being sacrificed.

The latest series of attacks began recently with accusations that Harry Ramos violated the city's Code of Conduct.  The accusations were brought by members of the community during a city council meeting.  The ring leader, Doug McAllister, is a former city council member and mayor, and former disgraced pastor, who served on the council for 12 years before departing in 2012.  None of the allegations can be substantiated, and appear way outside the normal personality of Harry Ramos.  The accusations range from harassment of city staff members to seeking evidence against current city manager, Rick Dudley.  Ramos has also been accused of racist remarks about applicants he interviewed for commission appointments, firing a city employee for not doing what he was told by Ramos (creating a hostile work environment), and sexual harassment.  As a result, an independent investigator was called in to determine if these "violations" were true, and if further action should be sought.

I have known Harry Ramos longer than he's been on the city council.  In my opinion, he is an honest and honorable man.  He is a soft-spoken conservative that doesn't fit the profile being created of a person guilty of domestic violence, or abusive behavior against the people he works with.  And I have a feeling that the investigator was not finding the evidence he needed regarding those allegations.  I think the investigator was hitting a dead end, so those that have been working on using this witch hunt to destroy Harry Ramos so that he will be forced to exit politics for good had to ratchet their allegations up to a new level.  A more serious charge, in their opinion, needed to be used.

I was communicating with Harry Ramos on Thursday morning, July 23, 2015.  I contacted him as the man behind Table Top News, a local publication in the area, and as a friend.  I wanted to ask him about a vote during last Tuesday's city council meeting regarding an agreement with a company in Finland that the city had been considering regarding economic development.  I am unable to attend the meetings like I used to, since I now teach a class on Tuesday Nights.  He told me the vote was 5-0 in favor.

"How are you holding out?"

The attacks, after all, have been relentless.

"I'm going to get attacked again at 2:00 pm," he said.  "They are trying to destroy me."

I told him I would be there to defend him if I could, but I had a doctor's appointment at 2:00, and then a Constitution Class to teach at 6:30 in Temecula.  "I Brought up your situation at a tea party meeting in Fontana," I said.  "They have city council members being attacked for voting against high density housing, too."

"They are saying I grabbed a woman's butt, and 'shoved my tongue down her throat' like I'm some kind of pervert.  They say I did this at a mega mixer six months ago.  But no police report?"

"Welcome to leftist politics," I said.

Later that night, my wife informed me that two local Los Angeles stations, ABC 7 and NBC 4, were reporting that Murrieta Mayor Harry Ramos was being accused of sexual harassment against a woman at a mixer six months ago.  According to the report, the investigator looking into the allegations against Ramos regarding possible violations of the code of conduct stumbled upon the information.  During my Constitution Class, two more folks told me about it.  While I was delivering Table Top News today, a person says to me, "Have you heard about the mayor?  He's an abuser guilty of domestic violence, and sexual harassment against some lady that works for a radio station.  I hope they get him out of there.  We don't need that kind of crap on our city council."

The court of public opinion, based on that comment by a citizen, is apparently bending and swaying in the direction that Ramos' opposition is herding it to.  Leftists prove to us all the time, the facts don't matter, as long as the accusation is believed by the voters.

During the years that I've known Harry Ramos I have learned that he is among the most honest, and honorable, people I have ever met.  Based on my personal observations, I don't believe he is capable of any of the allegations against him.  Also, based on personal experience, I know how low his attackers can get.  I have butted horns with them, myself, before.  It all began when I ran for city council in 2010, supporting 3 initiatives that the power players hated.  Despite their tactics, however, Initiatives C, D, and E passed by a landslide.  Yet, unlawfully, Measure E has still not been implemented.

People like councilmember Rick Gibbs, City Manager Rick Dudley, and former councilmember Doug McAllister, believe they are above the law.  They are a part of the ruling elite, and if you dare to stand against them, they will attack you, and in the case of Ramos, attempt to assassinate anyone's character that dares to stand in their way.

McAllister, for example, when I was at a debate at The Colony (a retirement community in Murrieta), in 2010, launched a sinister plan that was intended to hurt my candidacy, and embarrass me and my supporters.  Before the event began, he had fashioned an argument against me, and the initiatives, and made sure a printed copy of his attack was on every seat in the conference room, and stacked on a table in the lobby as people entered.  As a result of the vicious remarks against me, the audience wound up stacked against me.  After every answer by each of the other eight candidates on the stage, the crowd applauded enthusiastically.  When I gave an answer, the room remained silent, with only the four people that came with me, applauding.

I still managed to get a jab in at the power players, using statistics from the League of Cities website to show how abusive to the cities budget the city manager's salary, and the expense accounts of the city councilmembers, had been.  In response, a red-faced Rick Gibbs launched into a vein popping response that lowered accusations against me, and Bob Kowell (one of the authors of Initiatives C, D, and E).  Doug McAllister cowardly vanished when the going got tough.

Hit pieces have also been written, in an attempt to derail Ramos.  One laughable article by a writer named C.J. Leger at Murrieta Buzz couldn't even get his facts straight, misnaming McAllister by the first name "Dick," and claiming that Ramos has been mayor for "3 years."  If the opposition to Ramos can't even get their facts straight, how can we believe them on anything else?

The most interesting conundrum regarding these allegations is how it could possibly be that Harry Ramos grabbed a woman's butt, and kissed her with an open mouth that included tongue, during a busy mixer, with many people present, six months ago, but nobody ever said anything, and no complaint was ever made, for six months.  Then, suddenly, during an investigation, a couple people allegedly remembered the incident, and then conveniently the woman who was allegedly groped emerges with the accusation during a witch hunt aimed at destroying the character of Mayor Ramos?  I know that elitists think they are above the law, and above common sense, but I must ask, "How stupid does people like McAllister really think we are?"

I have lived in Murrieta since 1989.  Murrieta politics can be downright ridiculous.  We've had a lost mall, a recall election, former Mayor Long rear-ending teenagers while in a drunken stupor (and in an attempt to protect him his blood wasn't drawn for six hours. . . but he was still legally drunk), the owner of the Triangle (Mr. Domenigoni) accusing members of the city council of extortion, death threats against a candidate in the last election (Jon Ingram), and now this.  In the case of Ramos, however, it is obviously a witch hunt, and the motive is because he dares to vote against the ruling elite power players that run the city.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Murrieta Mayor Ramos facing sexual harassment claim - Press Enterprise

Murrieta Mayor to be Privately Investigated by City Council - Murrieta Buzz

Murrieta Mayor Accused of Molesting a Woman at a Work Party - NBC 4 Los Angeles

Murrieta Mayor Harry Ramos accused of sexually assaulting woman at mixer - ABC 7 Los Angeles