With reference to a TwitDoc document recently posted, as well as emails received from another credible source, I listened to a recent radio interview with Dave Colburn (@davecolb), where the subject of closing schools comes up.
Dave specifically states that he never voted to close a school.
Yet this document also includes information which relates to a story published by the Edmonton Journal in the Letters section, dated March 27th, 2009, and it also contains information directly from the school boards minutes, which "for the record" shows that indeed Dave DID vote to close schools.
Well.. I'm shocked. The appearance of it all is that Dave lied...
In my books, if you are going to start out this way, then you simply can not be trusted. .. Time after time we hear politicians spinning stories to get elected and then we hear the change of the tune of the music. The Alberta Government doesn't seem to have any interest in changing the laws to protect the public. This election year will be the first time we have voted in locals for 4 years instead of 3.
Pick wisely. Preferably someone that doesn't lie out of the box. I hope Ward 7 folks get this...
So last night (Oct 15, 2013) I attended the local community league forum being held for ward 7 folks, and I took the opportunity to mention the above issue with those present.
ReplyDeleteWhen Dave responded, he was... shall we say... very upset. And I get that. Its never nice to hear dirty laundry in public but...
Rather than offering an explanation, he instead decided to attack my character. He said, amongst other things, that I could have phoned him or emailed him and was quite pissed that I took this to "social media" instead, and suggested that I was in some way "hiding", and quoted "Common Sense".
First of all Dave, I've never hidden on twitter. My twitter page points to this blog, which has my real name in it, not something fake. You implied (in my opinion) that I was hiding behind a generic avatar, and I'm not.. never have been.
This avatar in twitter is actually the "ACCS" which stands for the Alberta Common Sense Society, which was a not-for-profit agency that I created several years ago to help people caught between the cracks in "the system". Pick whatever system you want.. legal, health, social services, or others. I put over $10,000 of my own money into this NFP, hoping for some government grant assistance from Alberta Lotteries, and was turned down.... which resulted in the NFP closing. I started IN twitter with this avatar, and twitter "shrunk" it down to just show CS instead of ACCS.. just the way it went.
I've had many discussions about my "avi" and I've been told over and over... don't change it. It stands out, and "I watch for it".. So Dave, there is a very valid reason why I do what I do and in the way I do it.
You hinted that you had an answer, an explanation... You are aware that I posted this, and then I asked you... many times, for a response. You chose to ignore me. So then I started asking you and your campaign manager to respond, and you chose yet again to ignore me. So then I started "attacking" you over it, and you chose to ignore me.
I'm open to an explanation, I always have been. Please feel free to respond here, with the information that you feel is not accurate. I'll review it, and if necessary I will be the first to apologize for it... in public. Until then, you have given me no other alternative but to think the information is correct...
For starters, could you (for the first time) indicate what schools in your opinion I have voted to close?
ReplyDeleteIts all right at the beginning of the post... "reference to a TwitDoc document recently posted" is a click-able link that opens up a "twitdoc" file... This file contains some information, possibly reported in a news paper article, and near the end of that document, is yet another link which directs you to some meeting minutes from the school board.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, the line that states "I listened to a recent radio interview" is also a click-able link which directs towards an audio file of the interview. Both of these links will open in a new page in your browser.
Still waiting for an answer. You said last evening that I lied and voted to close three schools. What are the names of those schools? What schools did I vote to close?
DeleteI am replying, as you asked, but you are not responding.
ReplyDeleteIt may be that the number is wrong, as I was going from memory. With that said, I am not going to repeat what is in the documents available by the links in the blog post. They were provided as links, because the information presented was lengthy.. Once you read them, then please feel to respond, and provide any corrections necessary...
DeleteThanks for your time.
The Journal article merely states that the Board approved closures. It also states that the decisions were not unanimous. The Journal article fails to identify how people voted. If you had exercised due diligence and read the minutes of the meeting, currently available on the epsb web site, you would have seen I opposed the closures of High Park and Newton, which a majority of Trustees supported, and joined my colleagues to unanimously support the closure of the regular program at Mount Pleasant...the regular program, not the school. Mount Pleasant is currently open, has always been open and has an enrolment today of over 300. It is doing very well. You received bad advice on this one,Gary, from a "credible source" and failed to do due diligence in investigating what really happened. You have to look a bit but the votes are in our minutes.
ReplyDeleteIf you would have reasonably contacted me by phone or email to make enquiries, we could have cleared this up in a few seconds. Instead, as a declared supporter of Mimi, you came out in Social Media calling me a liar. This seemed clear to me to be a partisan, unsupported and unjustifiable character slur that did not deserve a response.
We may have a future, productive relationship, or not, Gary, but this was not your best work.
With all due respect, I did try to trace this story. I had concerns because of the age of it, going back to 2007. I looked at the document provided, I went to the EJ website and tried to locate it but it was not online. I tried to access the archives, and I could not. I did a google search on the person in the EJ story, hoping that I could find the article in "google history" and I did not. I did however find a few references to the persons name within the EJ site, but it was on a different topic.
DeleteI am but a layman when it comes to the terminology used within the documents linked at the start of the story. To me, when I see "program closed", and within the context of the article (which so many things are not clear) it would first appear on the surface, that it meant closing the school.
The comments were made by a person identified as "K.M. Spila", and the details supplied by (what appears to be) an article published in the Edmonton Journal, seems to have conflicting words with the previous comments made. Specifically I refer to the items in red highlights, and the reference at the bottom of the document that contains meeting minutes, and the mention of "unanimously carried"...
Again, all of this is confusing. Which is the reason why I posted the link to the entire document supplied, so you could clearly see what I was talking about. I didn't want to take someone elses words, and twist them around. You yourself indicated that it was difficult to "see" the vote results in the minutes, and you are the one that is used to them.
You mention that I could have called you, or emailed you. I really didn't think you would respond, since we had discussions about the arena deal issues, and you knew I wasn't pleased with your answers. Since that discussion, you have avoided any responses to me within social media.
I thought about this blog post for several days, as I tried to research and see what all I could find. It was only when those searches failed, did I decide to post what was sent to me, and seek a public explanation.
When after around 6 weeks of asking for comments or explanations failed, I needed to know, so I went "community" public with it. All of this could have been avoided, and the matter cleared up, a long time ago. Am I partly to blame? Perhaps.. I honestly tried to research as much as I could.
Could I have called you, expecting an answer? I didn't think so, maybe I was wrong as well. I tried to do the best job I could in communicating to you. If only you could have communicated back 6 weeks sooner.
I have no idea who will win Ward 7... best of luck to you. No matter who wins, I have issues I want to discuss. Tony was not honest in his response to me during the forum, because he tried to imply that we had talked about all of the issues. I talked, I sent emails, I spoke with his EA... and I never got answers on the things within the house property, or about the community. And its answers that I am looking for. I may not like them, and if they are based on absudity... you can count on my voice being heard. If they are based on truth and logic... then I will have to accept that.
There has been very little of this past council, for several years, that has been based on truth and logic. And I will stand strong to fight that.