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THE MORNING MAYOR SHOW KMPH 840 AM Daily at 10 The valleys only local talk and news radio show January 7, 2008 BREAKING NEWS ON KAMILOS SUPPORTER DONNA WORLEY This morning on KMPH 840 AM at 10. January 6, 2008 The Sabatino Report The Morning Mayor Show and the Patterson Irrigator report what Modesto Bee ignored Online blog tied to SoCal media firm
Written by Jonathan Partridge / Patterson Irrigator Saturday, 05 January 2008
“I am angry that I’ve become the object of this small-town witch hunt, and I demand that it stop now”
- Donna Worley
The truth about an online blog that criticizes local leaders and community activists is that it bears many similarities to a site registered by a Southern California media company representative. Burbank resident Teressa Merrill shows up as the registered owner of the Web site www.truthabout
patterson.com, a defunct site with a similar name to the online blog www.truthaboutpatterson.org.
Merrill, who is known as Terry Merrill-Wilcox, is chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based Multiplicity Media Productions. Jonathan Wilcox, president of Multiplicity Media, is an adjunct professor of journalism at University of Southern California.
Wilcox has been a former speechwriter for several Republican leaders, including Gov. Pete Wilson. He also did public relations in the campaign to recall Gov. Gray Davis in 2003.
Several members of an opposition group to the proposed PCCP West Park industrial project said they saw Merrill-Wilcox at the Nov. 19 Patterson Unified School District meeting, when the board deliberated about whether to oppose West Park’s plans for the Crows Landing Air Facility.
However, she could not be reached for comment this week.
Tackling the ‘Truth’
The Truth About Patterson began posting blogs in late May 2007. In addition to criticizing Dallas-based Hillwood, a firm that at one time sought to develop the 1,527-acre former Crows Landing naval airfield, it has targeted Patterson City Council members, local developers and the local school board. It also has targeted WS-PACE.org, a group that opposes developer Gerry Kamilos’ proposed 4,800-acre industrial project that would go in and around the Crows Landing Air Facility.
It particularly has lampooned the group’s vice president, Claude Delphia, referring to him as “Dirt Claude” and comparing him with actor and singer Burl Ives.
By contrast, it has treated Kamilos and the West Park project more gently.
“Like many of my friends and neighbors, I’m not sold on Kamilos’ idea, either,” the blog writer stated June 24. “But I’m not reflexively opposed, either.”
Kamilos said once again this week that the blog is not affiliated with West Park. It is registered through the site Domains By Proxy, allowing the author to remain anonymous.
Video link questioned
Meanwhile, another Web site criticizing local leaders received loads of attention this week after it became evident that a local activist, who used to live in Burbank, bought videos identical to those used in a hit piece on Stanislaus County Supervisor Jim DeMartini.
The Dec. 16 YouTube video repeatedly compares DeMartini with former Rep. Gary Condit, D-Ceres.
Condit gained national notoriety after a young woman who he reportedly told police he had an affair with was murdered.
The video includes footage of DeMartini from the local “Westside Stories” show, produced by Patterson resident Gordon Barbosa.
Barbosa said the maker of the YouTube video illegally used segments from the show, failing to give him credit for the copyrighted material. As a result, he said, he plans to show documentation to YouTube verifying that the material was used illegally.
Barbosa said he sold copies of the DeMartini interviews to only one person. After a Sacramento television station linked the tapes to Patterson resident Donna Worley, Barbosa said she had been the one to buy them.
Stating her case 
Worley Worley, an advocate for West Park who is sponsoring term limits and slow-growth measures for the city of Patterson, said this week she had never even seen the YouTube video or been on that Web site.
She said she bought the tapes of the interview segments with DeMartini to educate herself about local issues. She said what she had heard about the video sounded as if it was in poor taste and that she would not criticize the supervisor because he is a fellow Republican.
Worley added that she did not have the know-how to design a Web site even if she wanted to. For instance, she said, she has had help with the Web site www.reformpatterson.com, which touts the city ballot measures she has proposed.
The Reform Patterson site, like the Truth About Patterson, uses the Domains By Proxy service. The same is true of www.sanjoaquinblog.com, which announced Dec. 20 that the YouTube video was being circulated, more than a week before area newspapers reported on the video.
Worley said she did not want to say who had helped her with the effort, and she also would not comment on whether she had let someone else view the tapes featuring DeMartini. She said she works with many volunteers, though she denied knowing Merrill-Wilcox.
“You take the help that’s offered you,” she said.
Under fire
Worley also said she has been repeatedly harassed by local residents for her stances, saying her mail has been tampered with and that she was even followed by a cab driver once while driving from place to place.
“I am angry that I’ve become the object of this small-town witch hunt, and I demand that it stop now,” she said Thursday.
She said she is tired of being harassed for her stance, and she believes members of the group WS-PACE.org and former Modesto Mayor Carmen Sabatino should be held accountable for accusations they have made about her being a paid activist.
While both Worley and Kamilos have repeatedly said they are not connected, Sabatino has proclaimed that they are on his show.
He said by phone Thursday that a former Rialto City Council member had announced during a meeting in August that Worley was a paid consultant for another corporate firm.
Councilman Ed Scott, who made those accusations, could not be reached for comment this week.
Sabatino also said Worley has admitted that she had made money for her advocacy work in the past.
However, Worley said she gives of her time freely, focusing on issues she is passionate about. For instance, the city of Rialto has poor water quality, and she said she felt strongly about that issue. She said Sabatino had left out parts of a clip of the Rialto City Council meeting that showed that council members had learned she was a Burbank resident because she had written that information on a card. At the time, she was renting a home in Patterson, but still had Burbank as her permanent residence, she said.
She also questioned Sabatino’s tactics, saying he had called her ex-husband to try to “trick him” into saying certain things about her. Sabatino said he called the ex-husband to question him about Worley’s background, and the ex-husband promptly hung up and said he did not want to talk.
Sabatino said he had more information that he would not reveal, but he wanted to wait to announce it at a later time.
Meanwhile, Kamilos of West Park said the whole situation is “bizarre,” and he does not have time these days to focus on anything but the project itself.
“We’re dealing with the facts and technical issues and on coming up with a plan that’s feasible,” he said. “We can’t afford to be distracted by all the kinds of stuff that’s going on.”
To reach Jonathan Partridge at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at
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