What you see as corruption could be that he was simply interested in helping a friend who has been a fellow citizen activist win an election so that he could bring representation on the city council to a group that has been absent for a while.  

Personally, I don’t know Mr Roybal that well but he doesn’t look like anyone that’s going to be in Dave’s pocket.  To me, he seems to be his own man.  

Dave hasn’t always been in a position to donate such sums to the political process but recent events have made it possible for him to be a little less frugal and I think it’s honorable that he’s willing to donate to the cause of making the local government system a little more accessible to someone who otherwise might not have the knowledge and the resources to have been elected on his own.  

I’m a lot less interested in the effects of contributions from citizens like Dave Wiechman than I am with the contributions that other candidates get from contractors,  developers and big business who have something to gain from the decisions handed down from this council.  

I think everyone on the council is honestly interested in helping Lakewood to grow in a sustainable way but I’d like to see a few more sub groups develop on the council.  I don’t like to always see the majority vote with the Mayor.  I like the Mayor and I think he represents us well but he should just be one opinion and I would like to see more dissenting opinions so that more decisions become a compromise or a blending of ideas which will help everyone in the city not just a wealthy few.  

One of the things that Councilman Ed Peterson use to say was that he thought that the best decisions are often compromises where everyone gets a little of what he wants but not everything.  I’d like to see more of that on our city council.