Eva asked me about the reference in Lou Gelfand's column to me working at
the Star Tribune when I got offered a job at the Downtown Council. Here's
the background:
When I was a reporter covering development issues, I was doing a story about
the impact the Mall of America could have on downtown Minneapolis.
At the end of one of the interviews, the chair of the Downtown Council said
downtown needed a person who could bring all the businesses together to
protect the city against this new competitive threat. He said he thought I
would be the right person for the job and asked if I would be interested.
I said no and went back to the interview.
A couple weeks later, after going to Edmonton and seeing that the Mall there
had a very negative impact on that downtown, I decided I didn't want to sit
on the sidelines and watch that happen to Minneapolis. So I called the
Downtown Council back to say I was interested, and then went to the
publisher of the Star Tribune to tell him I needed to be taken off the beat
because I was in a conflict situation.
The publisher suspended me, which I, and the Newspaper Guild, did not think
I deserved for stepping forward to disclose a potential conflict at a very
early stage.
The job didn't come through, I had a great time writing about other things
and that was the end of it. But six months later the Downtown Council
created the job, called me back and I took it.
Eva is right that this is a very legitimate question to ask me, and I wish
the Star Tribune would have allowed me the opportunity to tell my side of
the story.
I was pretty young at the time, and it wasn't a perfect situation but I'm
proud of the fact that I came forward to report the situation to the
publisher. As a manager in later jobs I have dealt with employees in
similar situations and have rewarded them for being straight forward.
Eva is right that this is a very legitimate question to ask me. She drew an
analogy to fundraising ethics. In that case, too, I think candidates should
be reporting potential conflicts, making them clear to the public and
letting the public make judgments. That's at the heart of what I have been
saying about disclosing the names of contributors.
R.T. Rybak
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