I believe candidates for public office owe their communities something very basic: accurate information.
That is why I was troubled reading Marilyn Librers’ recent candidate statement (Morgan Hill Times, Sept. 25), particularly the assertions about Morgan Hill’s history and her own experience.
Librers writes that when she moved to Morgan Hill in 1977, the city had “only 5,000 residents and two signal lights.” The population figure is demonstrably inconsistent with U.S. Census records.
The Census Bureau’s July 1, 1977 population estimate for Morgan Hill was 13,267, more than twice the number cited in her statement. The 1970 Census recorded 5,579 residents, which may help explain where a number in the neighborhood of 5,000 originated, but that was seven years before she says she moved here.
There is another discrepancy that deserves clarification. Librers writes, “I was evacuated five years ago,” immediately before discussing the evacuation risks facing residents along Dunne Avenue. The major Morgan Hill evacuation that corresponds closely to that description occurred during the SCU Lightning Complex fire in August 2020, not 2021.
The neighborhood where Ms. Librers lives was not included in the mandatory evacuation during the 2020 SCU Lightning Complex fire.
On Aug. 23, 2020, Cal Fire issued an evacuation order covering portions of eastern Morgan Hill, including areas along the East Dunne corridor and the Jackson Oaks and Holiday Lake Estates neighborhoods. The order was downgraded to a warning approximately 24 hours later.
That experience would certainly be relevant to a discussion of evacuation routes. But in September 2026, describing an August 2020 evacuation as having happened “five years ago” is simply not accurate.
If Librers is referring to a different evacuation in 2021, residents deserve to know which one.
This is not the first time I have personally witnessed what I considered to be a troubling lapse in factual accuracy. I was present when Marilyn Librers explained to the entire City Council and members of the community that she had attended the ribbon cutting for “Larson’s” bakery.
I remember the statement because I immediately recognized a problem: There is no Larson’s bakery, restaurant, or cafe in Morgan Hill. I assume Librers was referring to Lawson’s Bakery, a real Morgan Hill business. Perhaps that was simply a misremembered name. Perhaps there was another explanation.
But that is precisely the point: when an elected official presents something as a fact before the Council and community, the public should be able to rely on that information.
None of us has perfect recall. I certainly don’t. But elected officials make decisions that affect roads, housing, emergency preparedness, development, infrastructure and the future of our city. Their statements should therefore be held to a higher standard than casual conversation.
Morgan Hill has changed dramatically since the 1970s. That history is worth getting right. Our population, our development patterns, our infrastructure challenges and our wildfire risks are not abstract talking points. They are matters of public record and, sometimes, matters of public safety.
I am not asking for perfection from our elected officials. I am asking for something considerably more reasonable: when making factual claims about our city, get the facts right. And when a fact is uncertain, say so.
Morgan Hill deserves nothing less.
Karen Fitch
Morgan Hill
