In a message dated 6/7/2007 5:46:56 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
My questions include:
How do we thank John Fenton?
Can his job and reputation be saved?
Should we
save his job?
lose UCD?
settle for what we get (and thus deserve)?
How do we prevent the further co opting of UC by Politics, Penn and
powerful lurkers?
Do we support any person or initiative at UCD?
?, ?, ?
I totally agree with everything Liz asks here. We don't know the details -
only John Fenton knows EVERYTHING - so we can't judge what happened. But,
where do we go NEXT?
Didn't this problem come about because the Councilwoman asked John Fenton to
help out with SOMETHING, and he did? She doesn't dispute that that's what
happened - the only question is what did she ask him to help out with. And
then, didn't some student tell the Daily News that John did something which
was
inconsistent with the tax status of his employer and the law? Isn't that
how the story came out? From that start, how did anyone jump to the
conclusion
that "UCD" is to blame? It seems to me that the parties who participated
were Jannie Blackwell, John Fenton, the student, the Daily News, and perhaps
Tom Knox.
Faced with this accusation from the student, wouldn't any responsible
employer have no choice but to launch a thorough investigation? And wouldn't
they
have to keep things private till they got to the bottom of it? Don't those
of you calling for immediate answers understand that an employer has to
protect his employees' rights? Would any of you want your employers updating
the
public about what you might or might not have done wrong, before your company
had all of the facts? Do you think John Fenton wants that? The daily gossip
sheet sent out by his coworkers? Are you considering the liability issues
here, while you are demanding that the UCD give updates to the public?
Al Krigman has already told the list how delighted he is to be able to use
this incident - caused by Councilwoman Blackwell, John Fenton, the student,
the Daily News and perhaps Tom Knox - to rally people against the UCD so he
can
try once again to kill the proposal where landlords would pay a small share
of the cost of UCD's work. Well, a good portion of the money the landlords
would pay under the Business Improvement District initiative would be to
EXPAND THE CLEAN AND SAFE EFFORTS John Fenton has been heading. So list
members,
help Al out here, and if John has a job, it will be limited - in scope, and
perhaps in time, too. How long do you think the institutions will continue to
pay the wages of John and his coworkers, if the community wants the
services, but bedevils the institutions for funding it?
Glenn Moyer, who has made it clear on the list that he doesn't have any
respect for any of our community institutions, is also enjoying the current
mess.
Does anyone on this list doubt that Glenn would like to be rid of Friends
of Clark Park, the UCD, Penn, and every other organized entity involved in our
neighborhood? Well, if Glenn helps Al rid UC of the UCD, then clearly John
Fenton won't have a job, right? And there will be no organization to help
out Karen and Wendy when the street person strikes, no one to get the Water
Dept. to replace the disappeared manhole covers pronto, no one......
So please, re-read Liz's questions and think about ways to get to a positive
outcome appropriate for the current situation - NOT based on the libertarian
politics of a frugal landlord, or the exaggerations of an anti-establishment
rabble-rouser, NOT based on behind-the-scenes "payback" for old grudges, but
based on "what happens next?"
It's hard to think of a way to turn this to a win/win situation, but perhaps
we can at least avoid having it be lose/lose.
Melani Lamond
Melani Lamond, Associate Broker
Urban & Bye, Realtor
3529 Lancaster Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
cell phone 215-356-7266
office phone 215-222-4800, ext. 113
office fax 215-222-1101
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