Comments, M&C Feb 28, 2011

My name is Art Stigile, and I live at 312 W Edmonston Dr.

At Citizen’s Forum on Feb. 7th, I reported that the Chair of the RedGate Advisory Committee, Joe Jordan, had filed a FOIA request for all email between me and the City.  I stated that this was retaliation for my opposition to the Advisory Committee’s proposal to use taxpayer money to bail out the golf course.  I asked you to post all of my email on the City website, and I recommended that you discharge Mr. Jordan for engaging in what is clearly the politics of intimidation.

In a Feb. 16th article in the Gazette, Mr. Jordan confirmed my characterization of his actions.  “[I asked for it] because of [Stigile’s] outspokenness on the golf course,” he said.  “I don’t now [how it will be useful].”

I hoped that public embarrassment would cause Mr. Jordan to mend his ways, and failing that, I hoped the Mayor would step in and tell her campaign manager that his actions are way over the top.  Instead, Mr. Jordan expanded his request for my email.  And the following week, Mr. Jordan charged that City Staff were tracking the email of members of the Advisory Committee.

I’ve since learned that the Advisory Committee isn’t technically a City committee, so Mr. Jordan can’t be fired.

But if the Advisory Committee isn’t a City committee, then it’s really just a private advocacy group, and if that’s the case, why have you given it such privileged status in the debate over the golf course?  You gave it 3 hours to present its views on Sept 13th and additional time on Feb 7th to provide its spin on the NGA study.  Not only is this unfair, it also limits the information available to the public about this issue.

For example, the Advisory Committee’s biggest claim is that the golf course budget should exclude charges for overhead expenses, and if you exclude those charges, golf income covers golf expenses.  Well maybe if your work session had included an opponent of the bailout who had some budget experience, maybe you would have learned that measuring full cost is the Gold Standard of modern budgeting, and it’s recommended as a best practice by the Government Finance Officers Association.  And when you voted on Sept 13th to use the 2010 surplus to fill the $2.4 million hole in the General Fund reserve that was caused by the Golf Course’s debt, maybe you would have learned that the hole was a direct result of the failure for 10 years for the General Fund budget to include the full cost of taxpayers’ subsidies for RedGate.

So what happens when the NGA study comes out?  Does Mr. Jordan want to hear serious discussion about the contents?  No.  He immediately goes on the attack and files a FOIA for my email, hoping it will shut me up.

For anyone in the City who wants to know the details, go to my website at www.rocktrash.org.  I thought trash would be the appropriate anology.  You can read the FOIAs, and you can read some of the emails that I’ve sent the city.  And while you are there, sign my petition and email it to the Mayor and Council.