Like the children they are, city directors couldn’t handle the heat when the alternative press showed up.
On Friday, councilman Kenny Anderson invited Joe Sneve, from the Argus Leader, Bruce (his camera) an I to a closed door conference room media meeting at city hall today. I asked Bruce on Friday if the directors that were invited to be in attendance knew about our invitation, and Bruce asked the same of Kenny, Kenny responded, “It’s my meeting.â€
I was still skeptical, as was proven today when we arrived.
In attendance were councilors Kenny Anderson & Rick Kiley, Joe Sneve, Bruce and I, city directors Tracy Turbak & Sue Quanbeck Etten and project manager Kendra Simonsen and I believe another assistant.
Tracy got things started right by saying he thought the meeting was with Joe (only) to discuss the administration building and he was not going to stay in a meeting where a camera was rolling and the footage could be put on a blog (which surprised me, Turbak just said on SuFuStu he was unaware of my blog). Kenny tried to dissuade him, but he left as well as the other city administration. At this point, I had said nothing.
Kiley agreed to stay, but at this point there really wasn’t a meeting without the directors there to ask questions of. I looked at Kiley and said, “I am the alternative press and am no different than Joe Sneve here and I am highly offended, I’m outta here.â€
Bruce continued to film*, as far as I know, and may have some video of something later on.
The worst part about this is it proves what we have been saying for several years about the lack of transparency in city hall. So what if the camera is rolling, we were just going to ask questions about the administration building. If you have nothing to hide, what’s the beef? Or like the indoor pool advocational sessions were you afraid we would have a record of your lies that could be replayed in the future?
Also the disrespect shown towards councilors Anderson** (who is in leadership) and Kiley is atrocious. We know the directors report to the mayor, but they must also work with councilors. No surprise though, because this kind of disrespect has been going on since the Munson days.
And at the end of the day, the irony is that Kenny and Kiley called this meeting to gain support through using the media for the administration building. The administration and his minions don’t seem to concerned what the media reports or if we support it. And for the record, I didn’t support the building, and after the city directors acted like a bunch of childish brats, they certainly are not getting my support now. As far as I am concerned, they can all work in a damp leaky basement, seems like an appropriate place for people who like to keep secrets.
*Bruce was able to record some of the meeting, and we hope to have it up soon.
**Kenny called and apologized for how I was treated. I told him I did not blame him for the incident.