Over the course of the last few weeks I’ve gotten some emails asking why I pick on Jeffy Domenick, editor of the local paper. Many have come from new readers, readers that may not be familiar with the paper or maybe they’re just too into Fox News or CNN or even most of the Main Stream Media.
A couple of friends and bloggers on this blog were former School Board members and they’ve told me a lot of what happened at meetings that I didn’t attend. One of the more interesting instances was a meeting to look for a consultant for the school.
No one was offered a job; nothing was discussed that wasn’t brought up at the next public meeting, as prescribed by the Sunshine Law. Yet Judy Wisner in her inimitable fashion ran to the VND to inform them of something she fabricated on the way to the building.
Let me clarify. Judy can’t keep a story straight from one room to the next without embellishment or downright lies, or so says some informed people. Having been to a number of board meetings, hearing her comment, then reading a hack’s report in the paper the next day gives every indication that the person in charge at the VND is so biased as to believe every word she and her queen utter.
That no longer surprises me as is evidenced by the organization that owns the VND, the Trib.
The Trib is an extension of Fox news whether in actual legal fact or by virtue of releasing the warped views of its radical Right Wing Owner. Fox, and through its association with the Trib and VND, was granted a decision by Bush’s Radical Right Wing Supreme Court that “allows a news organization, newspaper or any publicly presented dissemination of information” to lie, yes, that’s right, the SCOTUS said Fox can lie and make up and slant news stories you see, hear and read. It’s no wonder that the local editor can not only pick what he wants you to read but decide how to write it whether it’s factual or not.
Recently, the VND through its parent company the Trib, decided to sue the Highlands School Board for conducting an executive meeting the Trib felt violated the Sunshine Law. They lost. The decision was based on fact. The VND appealed and two Republican appointed judges legislated from the bench against the School Board. Rather than reading the actual fact of the Sunshine law, those two judges went so far as to offer THEIR interpretation of it further adding opinion unbecoming such a position.
In the Initial, 2007, tear-jerking incident by the VND, the Sunshine Law was quite clear about executive meetings in that they can be held for informational gathering for personal, disciplinary, employment or preliminary discussions on upcoming agendas. It specifically does not allow any vote on any issue in executive session and matters relating to anything other than the above must be presented at the next public meeting…which they were (in the case of nick Staresenic). There was NO VOTE!
The VND’s cubby reporter and Dodge City Lawyer opened their mouths about the incident. The former left out and ignored facts. The latter, offered ethically questionable advice through the paper. Timmy McCue decided to sue the board and eventually dropped the suit. I can only surmise from speaking with a number of other lawyers that he had no grounds…which he didn’t.
The second suit was appealed by the VND because their pride was hurt again. It’s my understanding that it will be appealed again to a higher, probably more competent, court.
The VND has claimed to be concerned with the public interest and has on numerous occasions, blasted the Chris Salego Board for its decisions concerning funds. Of course, Jeffy Domenick and the VND NEVER had a bad word to say about Karen Wantland's Board and her decision to waste tax payer money on a Taj Mahal Football Stadium that was going to bring in sooo much revenue for the district. (How’s that working out, Karen?)
But we have a situation in Blawnox where a racist Napoleonic (don’t just think of racism as black and white) chairs a council. He made absolutely improper and degrading comments about a person and their ethnicity and thinks himself above foreigners. Do we need this kind of hate filled profiling in this area? I’ll have more on this a little later but the point is that the VND which should be suing the Blawnox Council over violations of the Sunshine Act seems to be ignoring the matter.
It looks for all the world as though the only concern Jeffy has about concerns or legality is against a few members of the Highlands School Board, who aren’t even members any longer.
Hey Jeffy, why aren’t you doing anything about it? You had no problem spending Highlands’ residents tax money on a frivolous suit claiming the public’s right to know what goes on in meetings. Yet with an obvious violation of the Sunshine Act in Blawnox, you choose to sit on your ass and do nothing. Maybe you have some friends on the Blawnox Council and don’t want to embarrass them? OR are you just that incompetent.
That my dear readers is just one of the reasons I pick on poor ol’ Jeffy. He’s a hypocrite.