Councilman Matt Orlando's comments to come.
I just received an email from Councilman Matt Orlando responding to my request to speak with him.
Councilman Orlando has happily agreed to a phone call, and will also comment via email to a couple of specific questions/concerns I raised in my correspondence with him.
So, I'll keep folks posted here on his response and our subsequent phone call.
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Just a note here about how I'm approaching this.
First, I have no axe to grind against Councilman Orlando.
As I've made clear, I reserve judgment about whether the Pentz matter was justified, though I do feel it wasn't handled well. As to that, I think Pentz himself contributed to the problem, by demanding a public review. And Mayor Dunn may have inflamed matters further by having it televised. There may well have been reasons for having a public, televised job review, but this may also have been an escalation of tensions which, handled with better, wiser leadership from the Mayor, might have led to the situation being defused.
And as I've said before, I tend to be very conservative when it comes to recalls, and am not sold on the need for one in this case.
Regarding our upcoming phone call, I won't be recording it. I have no presumptions as a "journalist" in the formal sense. But, with God's help, I am trying to uncover the truth as best as possible, and to share honestly with you folks what I learn. I'm not going to be trying to slavishly quote Mr. Orlando, nor will I try to "catch him out" (that seems to me to be the basest form of reporting, anyway).
Rather, I will allow him to craft his thoughts into a response so as to convey what he wants to say in the way he wants to say it. In this way, I hope to do my best to report what he wants people to know. I will be asking him some pointed questions, too, and hope that his responses to those will be illuminating.
I'm looking forward to speaking with him and sharing what I learn from the experience.
Councilman Orlando has happily agreed to a phone call, and will also comment via email to a couple of specific questions/concerns I raised in my correspondence with him.
So, I'll keep folks posted here on his response and our subsequent phone call.
---
Just a note here about how I'm approaching this.
First, I have no axe to grind against Councilman Orlando.
As I've made clear, I reserve judgment about whether the Pentz matter was justified, though I do feel it wasn't handled well. As to that, I think Pentz himself contributed to the problem, by demanding a public review. And Mayor Dunn may have inflamed matters further by having it televised. There may well have been reasons for having a public, televised job review, but this may also have been an escalation of tensions which, handled with better, wiser leadership from the Mayor, might have led to the situation being defused.
And as I've said before, I tend to be very conservative when it comes to recalls, and am not sold on the need for one in this case.
Regarding our upcoming phone call, I won't be recording it. I have no presumptions as a "journalist" in the formal sense. But, with God's help, I am trying to uncover the truth as best as possible, and to share honestly with you folks what I learn. I'm not going to be trying to slavishly quote Mr. Orlando, nor will I try to "catch him out" (that seems to me to be the basest form of reporting, anyway).
Rather, I will allow him to craft his thoughts into a response so as to convey what he wants to say in the way he wants to say it. In this way, I hope to do my best to report what he wants people to know. I will be asking him some pointed questions, too, and hope that his responses to those will be illuminating.
I'm looking forward to speaking with him and sharing what I learn from the experience.
posted by Geo at 2:23 AM
2 Comments:
Good luck. Looking forward to reading about it.
Have you watched the entire Council meeting/special meeting yet? If so, you'll notice that Mr. Orlando is a big fan of the 'gotcha' game (e.g. the part where he plays attorney, questioning Mr. Pentz about his relationships with old colleagues). It would only be fair to give him a taste of his own medicine. . . ;)
Mr. Pentz was smart to request a public review, something he is perfectly entitled to. He had to have seen what many of us did--that the 'Gang of Four' were gunning for him, and he wanted to expose them and make them have to justify themselves in public. With everything out in the open, they couldn't hide behind the veil of "personnel matters." Mayor Dunn did not have it televised; the council agreed to it, and they (the same four) only officially decided at the VERY last minute (no time to publicize it) before the meeting and ONLY because of tremendous pressure from the community. You saw the papers leading up to the meeting. . .
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