The Ledger reporter Keven Bouffard clearly shows his bias in the recent article about the dissolution petition discussed during the October 25th Workshop last night. Mr. Bouffard reiterates every point the city had to make, whether true or not, including the weak attempt to discredit the the voice of the people by City Attorney Tom Cloud making claims of duplicate signatures included in the petition. There were a couple of individuals who reside OUTSIDE city limits who own multiple parcels within city limits who did sign for each parcel. These signatures were included in the Non-Registered Voters and Water & Sewer Customers of Polk City Utilities Who Reside Outside City Limits, which were clearly not to be verified. These signatures were also not counted more than once when the signatures were tallied and have NO BEARING on the REGISTERED VOTER signatures. KEVIN, PLEASE VERIFY YOUR FACTS!!
By Mr. Bouffard focusing on the statement of the duplicate signatures earlier in the article, even thought they were not counted more than once in the tallies, he is implying that the remainder of the numerous signatures have no significance. The city made it clear that the signatures were not verified, but will be dismissed, even though they claim to want to know what the public wishes are. By disregarding these valid signatures representing a significant number of the registered voters of the city, the Mayor's proposal to work with the public on clarifying the financial impact of dissolution, IF this is what the majority of the people want, seems contradictory. Is this an empty promise in attempt to pacify the public? This looks like another delay tactic to allow the city to continue down the same path and create more debt. Many of the questions posed to Michael Herr at the County, before his term was up, are questions that Michael Herr himself stated could not be answered without further research and working together with the city. This needs to be a combined effort of the city and county to determine a plan, not a collaboration of only the public and city officials. This is a complicated issue that will not be addressed unless the issue of dissolution is a credible probability, due to expenses and time requirements to accomplish this plan. The title of this article, "Polk City Council Doesn't Back Polk City Dissolution" is misleading in that regard. The City chose to void the petition, but evidenced by lengthy conversation during the meeting which is not mentioned at all in this article, the issue of dissolution of the City by Council vote and a vote of the people is still on the table to be researched further.
Are Mr. Bouffard's personal feelings weighing too heavily in his objectivity? Is he trying to make a statement by only writing about one side of the story, since we will no longer return his phone calls due to the high rate of misquoting us in his articles? Regardless of his motives, this type of highly biased reporting only amplifies the small town injustices and politics going on here. What a shame! Maybe the public should scream louder to pull in a wider audience so this story of injustice and strong arming the city citizens will be more fairly reported by members of the media on a statewide and national level who have less personal ties to the subject at hand.
Polk City Council Doesn't Back Polk City Dissolution
Ledger Photo Gallery from the Meeting
IF KEVIN DOES NOT STOP TALKING AND GIVING HIS ONE SIDED OPINION THEN MAYBE WE SHOULD START GETTING A NEW PAPER AND LET THE LEDGER KEEP THERE FINE REPORTER.
ReplyDeleteI noticed the camaraderie between Kevin and the Mayor prior to the meeting. After I read todays article I came to the same conclusion. Kevin did not mention the opposition to their proposal to borrow money to pay back what was given to polk county at the deadline for the Spray Field. Trudy Block made a very clear statement along with the Mayor that the city was solvent and they had the necessary funds to make that payment. If that was a true statement they wouldn't require a loan to replace it. Kevin also didn't mention that the council could make arrangements with the county and create a referendum to dissolve. Tom Cloud agreed that this could be accomplished. The council gave the same old answer that they are researching that issue. This is just another stall tactic in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI am sending this comment to add my name to the previous comment. MIKE GILLILAND
ReplyDeletethis may be news to some out there but the ledger is a leftwing news paper, we stopped buying it long ago, they are owned by the leftwing new york time's!! who also owns yep you guessed it, "the boston globe" among many others..no surprise they like the to pander to the mayor, birds of a feather, as they say,heck they are just trying to make him feel at home, you might want to check out who owns all your local papers before purchase! and for gods sake don't watch msnbc or cnn,
ReplyDeleteDoesn't anyone find it odd that the Ledger did not do a story on the Oct. 25, 2010, Polk City SPECIAL MEETING held at 6:00PM before the workshop meeting??? At this meeting, Ms. Block & Mr. LaCascia forced a vote for an additional $million+ loan approval by the city council? Was the Ledger requested to not report on this, so the county wouldn't get wind of it?
ReplyDeleteArticle on Tom Cloud:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.law.fsu.edu/events/documents/mag_fall2008.pdf
i don't have much respect for the editor at the ledger. i have e-mailed him with my comments about how his reporter reports and i have yet to get a response. mickey and minney must be paying him well and telling him what to report.
ReplyDelete