From the Board of Directors of Informed California Foundation and Open Vallejo

Open Vallejo is aware of the recent defamatory statements implying that our organization was involved in misdirecting the domain thevallejosun.com to openvallejo.org. This allegation is categorically false. To be clear: we have no connection to this event. 

In an act of good faith, we attempted to block this URL from redirecting to our website, which was unsuccessful. We also reached out to the domain registrar and, through a web form, the anonymous registrant. As of last night, thevallejosun.com no longer directs web traffic to openvallejo.org.

We encourage whoever controls thevallejosun.com to promptly transfer it to its rightful owner. In the spirit of our mission, we welcome any investigation into this matter, including through ICANN. 

Open Vallejo operates in compliance with all applicable laws and strong ethical guidelines. We rely on our own work, trademarks, and reputation. We believe in the importance of a free and independent press, and support the work of all media outlets, as our many media partnerships show. 

Unfortunately, over the past two years, Open Vallejo has been the target of an ongoing campaign of false and disparaging communications regarding our organization. This campaign has included a series of social media posts and emails sent to our employees, volunteers, funders, partners, board members, and other media outlets with the apparent purpose of causing harm to our organization. We have consciously elected not to engage with these numerous false statements so as not to distract from our mission. We now have no choice but to respond.

We reject bullying and harassment in all its forms.

We understand that disagreements and differences of opinion are a natural part of a thriving and diverse community, and we respect the right of every person to express their views. As the U.S. Supreme Court noted almost 60 years ago, “debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open.” However, we will not tolerate false and disparaging remarks targeting our organization. 

Open Vallejo will continue to be strictly focused on pursuing our mission. We will not be deterred from that objective. The community deserves the truth, and we will continue to concentrate our efforts on telling it.

In transparency and community,