Don Jorovsky writes, of City For Neighbors' overdue disclosure form. > But wait! I forgot! It's OK when RT's supporters do stuff like that! > They're the pure reformers who are going to change those terrible > things down at City Hall, so it's all justified in the name of the > greater > good. Come on. You can bet that if some SSB supporters did any > of this stuff, people like Joe would be all over them.
That last part is almost certainly true. However, it should be remembered that several "RT supporters" - including this one - criticized City For Neighbors some months back for not fully listing their membership. And while Don was right-on to submit this link quickly (pancakes got in my way this morning, and I didn't see the story last night), he is jumping to conclusions that no RT supporter feels the late disclosure form is wrong. I, for one, do. As to Don's allegation that council members that "A City for Neighbors didn't want people to see that they were apparently selling high ratings to Council Members in return for large contributions," this is a reference to Dore Mead and Jim Niland contributing $500 total to the group and getting high ratings. While no quid-pro-quo is proven - council members fund vehicles to oppose other council members all the time, mostly through direct contributions not through educational efforts such as this - Don is only making the same assumptions the "reformers" have made about the incumbents, so fair enough. All the more reason reformers need to hold themselves to a higher standard than the people they are criticizing - and full disclosure and timely reporting is a vivid illustration. (By the way, the essential "record" catalogued by City for Neighbors has withstood all challenges on this forum, in my humble opinion, so give them points for that.) It's in the public interest to raise ethical standards generally. I see very few, if any, posts from SSB supporters criticizing facets of the mayor's contributor list (Ryan Corp. contributions, anyone?) and of course, Don's post can be read as a told-you-so defense of the status-quo money-for-something at City Hall. Hypocrisy is a bad thing, and Don is right to get in a hard, free shot. Of course, City for Neighbors was founded to get Kathy Thurber and Sandy Colvin Roy, not elect RT Rybak. While voters should be skeptical of the purism and infallibility of some of RT's supporters, the bottom line is which mayoral candidate will improve the ethical situation the most at City Hall. We can all make our own judgments about that. Kudos to Steve Brandt for getting this story out, by the way. David Brauer King Field - Ward 10 _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
