Ghost wrote: > 1. Many in the community would take issue with Art Erickson's > ability to run a meeting. For many years, neighborhood residents have > felt silenced & excluded in meetings he has run, and many have felt > that he has used those meetings as a way to further his/Urban > Ventures' agendas rather than facilitating honest debate.
Which is the same reaspn the so-called Blue Crew wanted to bring down the previous board. They felt silenced and excluded and from what I saw, they were. > > > 2. Whether Erickson has the backing of "big names" is very > questionable. Urban Ventures is very good at glad-handing and getting > Art's or Ralph's photos shaking hands with big names into the media. Al Quie sits on his board, Powell lends his name to the center--I call that backing. > 3. Erickson & UV have a reputation for not "playing well with > others" in the community. The same thing was said of the board overthrown by the Blue Crew. > Finally, David is right in questioning the financial ties between > Sabri & Urban Ventures. I have been in many meetings where the > acrimony between Sabri & Erickson was palpable, when they sat on > opposite sides of an issue - often when competing for the same > property or project. While I do not believe the mentioned religious > aspect has any merit (Sabri has NEVER shown signs of being a religious > bigot, whatever else I may think of his activities), the alleged > "donations" to Brian Herron, if you believe the tapes, the U.S. > Attorney, & the FBI, were not just innocent donations to "hedge > bets." All may be entirely innocent, but under the circumstances it > is not strange that a community member would wonder. Despite David's > (and other community members') non-employment by the FBI or other law > enforcement agencies, they certainly are competent to ask questions, > read audits, follow publicly available paper trails, and draw > conclusions. That's exactly what I question. Competence. I've seen the spin put on issues, the self-serving, nasty spin whether it's Sabri or Erickson or many another. There are the concolusions to be drawn from the facts and the pre-conclusions which are used to spin the "facts." Therein lies the continuing issue. When anyone quotes an FBI script as though it were anything but fiction.... When Sabri or anyone else is characterized as a perpetual liar until his voice appears on an FBI tape and then suddenly becomes the "truth", then asking questions, following paper trails, and reading audits isn't what's going on. WizardMarks, Central > ______________________________________ > 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 > > _______________________________________ 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
