NCT vs. Horn, Round II

Published: Friday, May 9, 2008 4:42 PM PDT

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The North County Times fired back at county Supervisor Bill Horn today, pointing out inconsistencies in the supervisor's story about a meeting with a cell-phone tower developer.

Horn and his spokesman each fired off lengthy rants earlier this week criticizing the Times and reporter Darryn Bennett, who had been investigating the Republican supervisor.

Bennett fired back in today's edition with a story that begins:

New details about a meeting between county Supervisor Bill Horn and the chief executive of a wireless company with a controversial cell-tower project before the county government have cast doubt on the supervisor's credibility and raised questions about the legality of the meeting.

Various sources have contradicted Horn's account of the meeting, as described in an e-mail his spokesman sent to the newspaper last week and on his Fifth District Web site. ...

But last week, the supervisor defended his meeting and criticized the North County Times in an e-mail to constituents and in a new feature on the county's Web site called "The Whole Story." Among other things, Horn said all four of his fellow supervisors had also met with Hutcheson.

However, county supervisors Ron Roberts, Greg Cox, Dianne Jacob and Pam Slater-Price all said through their top aides this week that they had not met with either Hutcheson or Benedetto.

What's more, aides for supervisors Jacob and Slater-Price asked Horn's staff Monday to correct or strike the faulty information from Horn's Web site.

As of late Thursday, the site still included Horn's assertion that the other four supervisors had all met with the developer and the lobbyist.

-- ROB DAVIS