Council candidate says he’s target of ‘dirty politics’

By Cassie Tomlin

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 | 12:55 p.m.

A Boulder City Council candidate said automated phone calls falsely accusing him of lying about his work and volunteer experience will not derail his campaign from focusing on important issues.

In recent weeks, residents have reported receiving “robo-calls” asserting candidate Joe Roche was misrepresenting facts about his employment at Boulder City Disposal and being on the board of the Boys & Girls Club.

Roche said it is the phone calls that are misleading.

The first call accused Roche of lying about overseeing a multimillion-dollar budget and being a manager at Boulder City Disposal, said Nancy Nolette, a resident who supports Roche’s campaign and received the call.

In a campaign questionnaire from the Boulder City News, Roche said he has “secured the required permits for a recycling center in Nevada and have managed, directed and supervised multimillion-dollar budgets and, when necessary, corrected budget deficiencies.”

Roche said the statement is true and that he was not talking about his time at Boulder City Disposal but his job as general manager at American Shredding in Las Vegas.

A second automated call said Roche was “caught lying about his qualifications again” and that his claim that he was involved with the Boys & Girls Club is “completely false.”

On his Web site, BCJoe.com, Roche says he has “served Boulder City as a board member of the Boys & Girls Club.”

Roche said that is true, too. The Boys & Girls Club of Las Vegas Web site lists him as a member of the 2008 corporate board.

“Boulder City residents deserve to know the real issues and not the dirty politics,” said Roche, who said he plans to keep his campaign focused on the issues and tell voters how he would lead as a city councilman.

The caller in the first message identified himself as a former employee of Boulder City Disposal who no longer lives in town. The second caller said the message was being paid for by “BCTruth.” The origin of neither call could be verified.

“Dirty politics has to end,” said Sabina Duke, another Roche supporter who received the first automated call. “If people can’t win on their own merit, then they don’t deserve to win.”

Cassie Tomlin can be reached at 948-2073 or [email protected].