This writer filed an OPRA request the day after the meeting, seeking details of costs including compensation to the radio station, speakers, city staff who set it up, school rental and more. Eventually I received documentation of a $20,000 check drawn from a "hardware and software maintenance" account to buy ads on WBLS and for personal appearances by radio staff at the event. The entire question was never answered.
The governing body's inquiries have similarly gone unanswered and now an attorney is being hired to look into the matter.
The shortcut here would be for the mayor to own up. If this was a misstep, why not say so and be done with it? Certainly people in higher office have had to admit errors of judgment of a much higher scale than holding a town meeting with funds borrowed from an inappropriate account. And couldn't the story of the $15,000 "donor" be told in closed session if necessary?
This event came about before the city was put under the chastening Memorandum of Understanding with the state that tied $250,000 in special state aid to a set of limitations on spending. In the current climate of harsh fiscal realities, any undue expense stands out and most officials have accepted the constraints. In retrospect, the WBLS tab was probably an improper use of public money, so in the spirit of the times, why not say so, deal with it and move on?
The mayor's obdurate refusal to admit, explain, account for what actually happened just leads one to think there is more to hide or that it boils down to a power struggle in which she will not accede to any notion of stewardship while in office. This in effect forces the council to investigate.
Many have spoken of the harm done by the the public spectacle of dissension at televised meetings. The mayor's credo, "Growth by Unity," seems to have been replaced by "Stasis through Disunity" on many fronts. Not only are city residents watching, but so are developers, possible new residents and investors in new businesses. The cost of of stubborn silence may be more than the price of coming clean.
--Bernice
You state it in such simple terms one could only hope the Mayor reads this blog posts and suddenly the ounce of common sense that has seemingly escaped her would appear.
ReplyDeleteWill it?? Probably not. She clings to the theatrics of "Why Me??", "How could you" complete with weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Only a fool would rather be thought of as an incompetent leader than one who admit a mistake was made.
She has escaped many of the simple lessons in life apparently. Due to her complete lack of cooperation in this matter I hope the lawyer cleans her clock. ( But, then of course, we'll have the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth with the " How can you not accept that I made a mistake ", with all of her apologist falling in line. Old is new again.
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ReplyDeleteIt would make much too much sense for the Mayor to come forward and give us the truth, nothing but the whole truth.
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ReplyDeleteTAP's comment once explained is over the line.
ReplyDeleteA victim of the Freedom From Speech brigade!
ReplyDeleteNo, a victim of being a nasty big-mouthed dope.
ReplyDeleteHoist your own petard is more like it.
ReplyDeleteI stand by my original statements . . . not one politician in this town does anything purely because it is the right thing to do, every one of them has a price and it is not necessarily money!
ReplyDeleteI own all of my statements . . . anyone with half a brain can find out who I am!
ReplyDeleteYou on the other hand Anon 8:24 are a coward and a fool!