Media Monday – Daily Times, Tall Tales and PAC-14

In August, 2007 we noted that Daily Times reporter Greg Latshaw could prove to be quite dangerous.  Why?  He possesses the doubly dangerous traits of bias and cleverness.  Additional evidence was printed on Sunday with Latshaw’s story about PAC-14.

Rather than resort to the normal Daily Times MO of he said / she said journalism, Latshaw wove a wicked little tale with just enough facts to be plausible.  The obvious intent of the piece is to build support for the concept of a so-called “community board” for PAC-14.

The concept of a “community board” is important to those wishing to seize control of PAC-14, and the $200,000 plus in taxpayer dollars that go with it.  If Latshaw had been honest in his reporting his readers would know that this “community board” will be accountable to neither the taxpayers of Wicomico County nor the “community” in general.

Latshaw is clever.  Note his wording in the second paragraph:

… with most saying they want the next board decided by the community and not government appointees.

Latshaw makes it sound as if the “community board” approach is the one that is actually the one which is more accountable to the average citizens.  Forget that fact that it is ELECTED OFFICIALS that are making board appointments.  Forget the fact that these ELECTED OFFICIALS have to stand for election every four years.  Forget the fact that a small, elitist clique would be deciding who serves on the PAC-14 board under the so-called “community board” model.  Let’s also forget the fact that this “community board” will be accountable to no one.

If these reasons weren’t good enough to turn thumbs down on this approach, there is one more compelling reason -

City Council President Louse Smith, part of the 3-2 Council majority that formed the city’s position, said PAC 14 should be controlled mostly by the general public. She is against government-appointed boards.

This is from the woman who promised fiscal responsibility – and gave us tax increases.  This is from the woman who promised an on-time audit of Salisbury’s finances – and has been an abject failure.  This is from the woman who changes the rules of the city council, seemingly every month.  This is from the woman who promised “government in the sunshine” – yet refuses to answer the most basic questions from her own constituents.  Let’s forget that she is quite possibly the most obtuse woman ever to hold elected office – in Salisbury or anywhere else.  How many “government-appointed boards” has she rubber-stamped for her master, Mayor Barrie Tilghman?

Any endorsement from Louise Smith should be a glaring admission to the public that this is not in their best interests.

Latshaw would have us believe that this is all about doing what’s best for PAC-14.  He would be wrong.  This is about handing over hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to a group with no accountability.  It sounds so nice and cuddly – “community board”.

This group argues that this is necessary for PAC-14 to flourish.  We are to infer that this will allow PAC-14 to raise money.  Unfortunately, this group could have been raising money all along.  They haven’t.  This tends to make me question their motives as well as their veracity.

What do they want?  Millions more of your dollars:

PAC 14 uses a 900-square-foot facility that doesn’t have a room larger than 10-feet-by-10-feet. The city and county could ask Comcast to also contribute money for capital projects if it chose, but that might result in higher bills for cable subscribers.

No.  It is not a question that your cable bill MIGHT go up – it would definitely go up.  I was actually in favor of parts of Mike Goodson’s plan until I saw this guy in action.  Goodson effectively stopped any progress being made on moving PAC-14 forward to the next step because it wasn’t the direction that HE wanted it to go in.  He did this by monopolizing time at board meetings and browbeating some of the weaker members of the board until they capitulated.  We now even have Salisbury City Administrator John Pick admitting that Goodson was one of the lead culprits in the hijacking of the PAC-14 board:

City Administrator John Pick said members of SU and PAC 14′s staff had suggested hiring the consultant because the board of directors had gone nearly two years without a meeting. Next, representatives from SU, the city and county approved PAC 14 hire the Buske Group, which in turn asked a task force of people in the community be formed.

While Goodson, Pick and others love to claim that the existing board was “dysfunctional”, we should all remember that the “members of SU and PAC-14′s staff (Goodson) were the same folks who submitted budgets that were not approved and refused to call board meetings.  These were the same people who pushed for the hiring of Buske when they DID NOT have the authority to do so.

Given the obvious refusal to “play by the rules”, do you really want these people controlling a sizable chunk of your tax dollars?  The Daily Times sure makes it sound like we should.

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