Landan counter-attacks: "After Facebook Outrage, Owner Of Haymarket Whiskey Bar Sues Over Rape Allegations."

Photo credit: Insider Louisville (read Joe Sonka's report).

For two weeks, silence.

"When internet justice is likely the only justice": Allegations of rape against Matthew Landan result in the closing of Haymarket Whiskey Bar. Are we learning yet?

Now, Matthew Landan strikes back.

As of last evening, the inevitable shit show has commenced. For my money, Erica Peterson provides a clear, easy-to-digest summary of where matters stand at this time.

After Facebook Outrage, Owner Of Haymarket Whiskey Bar Sues Over Rape Allegations, by Erica Peterson (WFPL)

The owner of a local whiskey bar has filed a lawsuit against two women who have accused him of sexual assault and two former employees who staged a walkout at the bar.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday evening in Jefferson Circuit Court on behalf of Matthew Landan of Haymarket Whiskey Bar alleges his business and reputation were irreparably damaged by the fallout from a Facebook post that called Landan a rapist.

The lawsuit alleges the accusers made false statements, knew they were false, and made them with “reckless disregard.” Landan claims he suffered damage to his reputation, embarrassment and emotional distress.

WFPL is not naming the women who accused Landan because they are alleging sexual assault and haven’t gone on the record. Attorneys for the women have not returned our requests for comment.

For decades, the legal system has often failed women who have accused men of sexual assault. For this reason, some feel outlets like Facebook are their best option to tell their stories.

But social media can be a double-edged sword. In a moment where it provides a megaphone for these stories — everything from women sharing stories of sexual harassment with the hashtag #metoo to the viral meme that called Landan a rapist — the legal landscape for these cases is more complicated than ever ...

"When internet justice is likely the only justice": Allegations of rape against Matthew Landan result in the closing of Haymarket Whiskey Bar. Are we learning yet?

You may wish to read the third part first.

At least for the moment, the Haymarket Whiskey Bar has ceased to exist. For Matthew Landan, the bar's owner, the feces hit the fan on November 13, via rape allegations on social media. It's been a week and a half, and my aim is to digest the news to date in three sections.

• Part One: Eater is first with the overview.
• Part Two: Most (if not all) of the coverage so far.
• Part Three: Erica Rucker's essay helps me to understand a few harsh realities.

---

Part One

Seeing as the national Eater food and dining web site apparently takes pride of place as the first to break the story, here's the overview; originating social media links are included within the text at Eater.

Louisville Bar Staff Quits After Rape Allegation Emerges Against Owner, by Hillary Dixler (Eater)

Women have accused Haymarket Whiskey Bar’s Matthew Landan of sexual misconduct

The staff of Louisville’s five-year-old Haymarket Whiskey Bar have effectively shut down the bar — by refusing to show up for work — after owner Matthew Landan became the subject of a rape accusation that surfaced on social media. “I will comfortably say that every employee refused to open the bar and quit,” manager Eric Snider told Eater when reached for comment. “But we all would like the focus to be on the victims and the crime. Not us. We aren’t important here.”

The walkout was held in response to multiple sexual misconduct allegations against Landan that have surfaced since November 13. On that date, Westley Moore posted a public Facebook message under the still-trending #MeToo hashtag, in which she claims that Landan raped her, clarifying in the comment thread on the post that it allegedly happened in 2013. "Some friends know this already, and I feel it’s time for the rest of you to know and make a stand,” she writes. Eater has reached out to Moore, but has not heard back.

The Facebook post has over 750 shares and over 1,200 reactions, and seems to have kicked off a swift response towards Landan and the bar. On November 14 and 15, multiple staff members posted to Facebook that they no longer were working for Haymarket “under Matthew Landan’s ownership.” Several musicians, DJs, and other groups who performed at the venue have publicly announced they will no longer do business with the bar, and a public protest is planned for Friday evening, in what the organizer describes as a “show of support to those women brave enough to come forward and those who have been silenced.”

That line refers to other women who, inspired by Moore’s post, came forward with their own allegations against Landan in recent days. At least two more misconduct allegations against Landan are currently posted on Facebook.

Eater has reached out to Landan for a comment and has not heard back; the restaurant’s website and Facebook page are no longer active. Former Eater Louisville editor Zach Everson noticed that Landan had posted a statement on his personal Facebook page that has since been taken down, in which Landan describes Moore’s allegations as “serious, false, malicious, and defamatory” ...

Part Two. 

The story exploded on social media, and those local new sources we might guardedly refer to as "traditional" (primarily print and television) were deemed by some observers as overly slow to respond.

It strikes me as a sticky wicket. Is "news" something defined by hundreds of people on the Internet, or is it dependent on a vetting process practiced by professionals in traditional media? Can it be both? When is news fake, and when is it real? Who decides?

In short, Walter Cronkite is no more.

Note that LEO Weekly is precisely that; it's published once a week, though the Metzmeier piece appeared on-line as early as the 20th.

• November 17 The Entire Staff Of A Bar Quit After The Owner Was Accused Of Sexual Misconduct, by Lisa Dunn (Uproxx)
• November 20 A #metro #metoo story — Social media and the law, by Kurt X. Metzmeier (LEO Weekly)
• November 20 Jewish Antifa Bar Owner Matthew Landan Accused of Raping Woman (a neo-Nazi and white supremacist website)
• November 22 Haymarket Whiskey Bar closes abruptly, by Bridgett Weaver (Louisville Business First)
• November 22 Louisville bar closed after #MeToo post about owner (WHAS-11)
• November 22 online">NuLu bar owner closes doors after sexual abuse allegations surface online, by Chris Sutter (WDRB-41)
• November 22 Thorns & Roses: The Worst, Best & Most Absurd: We believe the women ...

Part Three.

I'm famously opinionated, but there is a time for bloviating and a time for listening. As the Landan rape discussion hit a crescendo on social media, I found myself disconcerted, and more than a little uncomfortable.

What about due process, and rule of law?

But at the same time, don't revolutions occur precisely because existing rules of law are inadequate as redress to injustice?

In this extended excerpt from Erica Rucker's weekly column at LEO, Rucker and JoAnne Sweeny explain my discomfort.

It's the heart of the matter, isn't it? I remain horrified by rape and by vigilante justice -- but as with so many manifestations of conscience and consciousness, there has to be a spot on the map where we take a stand ... and in this instance, it's with the women.

You're encouraged to click through and read the whole essay -- and thanks, Erica. The learning curve is demanding, and your words are just what I needed to hear to be reminded of the way things really are.

THE LEO LIP ... WRITING ON THE METRO: When internet justice is likely the only justice, by Erica Rucker (LEO Weekly)

 ... So what are we to make of internet justice in instances of sexual assault and in the wake of this most recent local scandal?

JoAnne Sweeny, an associate professor of law at U of L whose areas of expertise include First Amendment issues and women and gender, told LEO, “Using social media, women have found communities of support where they can share their stories and be believed.”

“Doing so has allowed victims to come to terms with their assaults and feel more empowered by talking about them. This sharing has also showed people how pervasive these abuses are.”

It is clear to me that the pervasiveness of toxic masculinity and sexual assault is finally being highlighted throughout our culture at the moment. It is not limited to the stories in Louisville — it has reached the top of our state and federal governments, including our “pussy grabbing” president.

What men have been allowed to do in the shadows is now under a powerful microscope.

“Quite honestly, this vigilantism appears to me to be the next logical step,” Sweeny continued. “No more content to simply listen to each other, women (and men) are now turning to the perpetrators and seeking justice.”

Is internet justice the wrong kind?

As someone asked me before I started writing this piece, “Should we wait for the legal system to have a chance to respond?”

Sweeny said the premise of the question is flawed.

“I think it is a mistake to say that the legal system hasn’t had a chance to respond — it absolutely did and failed,” said Sweeny, adding that some of the local women who posted on Facebook had said their reports to police went unheeded.

“That is the key thing here — vigilante justice usually doesn’t appear in a vacuum — it rises because the legal system has failed to bring about justice.”

That the Facebook page of the bar has been deleted, and the bar has not reopened, is the result of how quickly the news spread and the power of community consensus. Should we feel guilty about how Facebook was used to end this community relationship?

I say absolutely not. I stand with women, always.

Even though this person has not been charged or tried in court, the accusations came from more than one person. The response seems appropriate.

Said Sweeny, “I would, of course, prefer that the law step in and get it right, instead of people spreading stories and leaving no room for the alleged perpetrator to explain his side. But the law is notoriously bad at bringing rapists and those who commit sexual assault to justice and has been for a long time. So, this is an imperfect remedy that has come about because of a broken system that has repeatedly failed women. Women are finding spaces where they are now being believed and they are using that new power to get results. I can’t fault that, really.”

The statistics don’t lie. The justice system, as it is, doesn’t work.

It hasn’t worked for women.

It doesn’t work for people of color and certainly doesn’t serve justice to people without the means for powerful attorneys and expensive bails.

Why do we continue looking toward the justice system for justice?

Sweeny said the stories being posted are powerful. “And they are costing men their livelihoods and communities,” she said. “But I’m not sorry for that. Rape culture is so ingrained in our society that it probably takes a shock to start to undo it. I know many men who are now questioning themselves, worried that they may have transgressed in the past without knowing it. My own husband and I talked about that today. And I told him that I’m glad he feels discomfort.

“Perhaps this is the path we take to get to equality and, yes, men will have to suffer some discomfort. But, honestly, I think it’s their turn.”

Media vs. Trump: "It’s about legitimacy, of course, and what’s left of the respectable press is utterly captivated by the theme."

To begin your week with optimism and encouragement ... and whoever said the picture has to match the text?

The media's war on Trump is destined to fail. Why can't it see that?, by Thomas Frank (The Guardian)

The news media needs to win its war with Trump, and urgently so. But the goal should be more than just reestablishing the old rules of legitimacy

These are the worst of times for the American news media, but they are also the best. The newspaper industry as a whole has been dying slowly for years, as the pathetic tale of the once-mighty Chicago Tribune reminds us. But for the handful of well funded journalistic enterprises that survive, the Trump era is turning out to be a “golden age” – a time of high purpose and moral vindication.

The pivot:

These things don’t happen because the journalists that remain are liberals. It happens because so many of them are part of the same class – an exalted and privileged class. They are professionals and they believe in the things that so many other professional groups believe in: consensus, “realism”, credentialing, the wisdom of their fellow professionals and (of course) the stupidity of the laity.

This is the key to understanding many of their biases – and also for understanding why they are so utterly oblivious to how they appear to the rest of America.

About your residence in one of two bubbles.

I'm a longtime fan of Timothy Garton Ash's work. He was on hand in Eastern Europe during the latter end times, and saw first-hand the value of truth in bureaucratic and totalitarian settings.

Do you figure Mark Seabrook will be voting for Donald Trump?

Do you live in a Trump bubble, or a Clinton bubble? by Timothy Garton Ash (The Guardian)

The myths, exaggerations and lies of our fragmented media have distorted reality for both left and right. This is eroding our democracy

 ... A noble American cliche invites us to believe in the “marketplace of ideas”. What we are witnessing in this election is a market failure.

Joe Dunman on media failures and the Great Mall Riot of 2015.

"I was shocked to hear about the Mall of St. Matthews. I couldn't believe people still shopped at malls." 
-- a clever friend of ours

Saturday, December 26, will be remembered as the Bloody Mall St. Matthews Riot.

Yeah, right.

Estimates of the rioters began in the thousands, and have been dropping each day since the incident began being reported completely out of proportion. Give it another couple of weeks, and it will turn out the mall was completely empty at the time.

Dunman dissects the story/non-story, refers to "local media stenographers" (my heart grew three sizes, natch), and ends with a nod to The Who.

Commentary: Uncritical reporting of one-sided police accounts sparks fear over ‘riot’ at Mall St. Matthews, by Joe Dunman (Insider Louisville).

... Despite a nationwide decline, some malls remain prime gathering places for young people. A policy that youth would no longer be welcome in a mall unless they have a focused shopping agenda or are tethered to a chaperone is absurd, not to mention unenforceable. What would mall security need to do? Search the pockets of every entrant for cash, credit cards, and shopping lists? Tail every teen to ensure they remain securely under the helicopter watch of their parents?

Let's just say that I won't be counting on Louisville.com to crusade for truth and accuracy any time soon.

At the risk of my eyeglasses taking on a rose-colored hue not previously mandated by the optometrist, wasn’t there a time when “media” (a loaded term, indeed) incorporated into its daily mission some semblance of commitment to getting basic information right?

I don’t mean to imply matters like editorial judgments, with which we all can merrily debate, but just basic facts: Times, dates, addresses and the like. These are the sort of elementary listings that should be easiest to get right, and when they aren't, we see corrections all of the time, whether in print or electronically.

The electronic media probably performs no worse in terms of accuracy than old-school print, given the latter's salacious and scurrilous salad days, but  every now and then, it's useful to be reminded of why the Internetz cannot always be trusted. As evidence of the lamentably scattershot world we currently inhabit, indulge me while I tell a story.

It all began with a posting by Alexis Messmer at Louisville.com on March 27, in which the city of New Albany was highly praised. So far, so good, in a buffed 'n' polished, chamber of commerce sort of way, except that amid the boosterism, the brief description of my business interests was badly skewed, and required correction.

I sent a request for these corrections to Louisville.com by way of its website reply form, and heard nothing back. A few days later, on Twitter (April 3), I managed to get through with a message to the editor, Elizabeth Myers, and explained the problems with NABC’s citation in the original story, which began with the heading itself: “New Albanian Brew Company Pizzeria.”

First, it is inaccurate. The name of the company is New Albanian Brewing Company, not "Brew," and the full name of the location in question is Pizzeria & Public House, which a cursory visit to our web site will confirm.

What's more, the inaccurate heading doubled as a hyperlink, errantly leading not to the pizzeria’s section of the company website, but to the Bank Street Brewhouse listing therein. Here is the text of Messmer's original posting.

New Albanian Brew Company Pizzeria: The New Albanian offers bistro cuisines that are accompanied by their own house beers. You can check out what’s on tap on their website for the full list of beer choices. They offer drink specials throughout the week and Sunday brunch. Be prepared to call a cab, because drinking one beer won’t be enough. Don’t forget to try to the Hoosier Daddy, Crimson and Cream ale paired with pizza, bread sticks, and beer cheese. YUM!

I offered other necessary corrections beyond the heading/hyperlink error, because as those familiar with NABC can see quite easily, the author had mixed various elements from two distinct locations into one misleading mishmash.

NABC has two on-premise locations, and we sell our beer to other
establishments through the normal distribution channels.

NABC Pizzeria & Public House
3312 Plaza Drive (off Grant Line Road)

NABC Bank Street Brewhouse
415 Bank Street (downtown)

After the incorrect (and broken) link, she mentions bistro cuisine … which is served at Bank Street Brewhouse, not the incorrectly named and linked “New Albanian Brew Company Pizzeria.” She is correct that beers are listed at the website, but the link is wrong. Did she even go to the web site?

Drink specials are the same at both locations. She mentions brunch, which is only at BSB, not the Pizzeria location. Finally, after trying to link the Pizzeria to Bank Street, she talks about the pizza – which is at the Pizzeria, not Bank Street (where the link would have taken folks if not broken).

To the editor, I pointed to the mixed blessings inherent in the rapid sharing of fundamentally flawed and garbled information.

It’s nice for both of us (NABC and Louisville.com) that the piece is being forwarded and linked electronically, but this paragraph is so muddled that I’m not sure it helps us very much. In short, for someone reading this without prior knowledge, it's likely to convey the impression that we serve pizza at BSB.

Beyond that, and while conceding that I can be an ass of epic dimension, getting some basic facts arranged correctly strikes me as a prerequisite of someone purporting to contribute content to a web site like yours. I know; I'm old, and have old-fashioned expectations. The NABC web site is fairly clear about it; the two locations have separate pages, and the descriptions are accurate. But the URL has to be right for it all to matter.

Here is the editor’s reply, also on April 3:

It is not old-fashioned for a business owner to have high expectations regarding the information distributed about his or her business. The web makes it far more difficult to do so, but I certainly understand your predicament.

I have removed the offending paragraph, so the article now has no reference to your business. I will forward your email to the writer (who happens to be a college intern in our office) and hopefully she can re-add the paragraph and correctly note the information you have so kindly given.

Again, so sorry you've had a negative experience. We are working very hard on a site redesign, and we have had a few server outages in the past weeks, so perhaps that is why your contact did not go through. In general it is best to contact me by email this address.

Thank you for your contact, and I hope you have a wonderful day, please let me know if I can be of further service.

Thus, we were completely expunged from the article, and I began looking periodically to see if corrections had been made. Crickets chirped; pins dropped. No correction was forthcoming, and so I decided to check back on the morning of April 18.

Three weeks since the original piece ... two weeks since we exchanged thoughts ... and the net result, as it appears now, is that my being a business owner with high expectations translates into permanent removal from an article, merely because I pointed out not just one, but several errors.

Before I write about this experience on my blog, I'm just curious to know if this was the intended outcome from the start. Would it have been better for me to say nothing and tolerate the errors, because at least then the reference would remain?

I must say, all of this confuses me.

The reply came later on the 18th.

I am very sorry you've had a negative experience. In general, when an error on the site is pointed out to me I do my best to fix it right away. As I am personally unfamiliar with your business, I removed the paragraph entirely, to avoid the continued distribution of any misinformation.

Certainly it was not the preferred outcome for your business to be removed entirely from the article. The site is run mostly on contributions from freelance writers, and when a larger rewrite or edit is needed I contact the author of the article in question. I forwarded your email to the writer in this case, and it looks like she made the decision not to include your business in the article. I would guess that decision had to do with timing; as I'm sure you know, the site updates daily, and by the time you and I had our exchange, the article in question was completely "off the radar".

We do our best to make the site informative, fun to read and well written, and I am constantly working on the balance of content and quality. I appreciate your patience in dealing with us and pointing out our error; believe me, we love to know when we can fix a problem. I hope in the future one of our writers will cover your business in a more detailed and helpful way.

Have a great weekend

In short: As the person in charge, what do you expect out of me -- results? Let's try to absorb this stunning admission of editorial and administrative impotence.

An an entertainment news “source” deriving content from amateurs, free-lancers and interns. Louisville.com relies entirely on them to make corrections of their own mistakes, with cooperation purely optional, even when the corrections already have been provided free of charge, and although the editor, ostensibly better trained at some variety of “journalism” than these randomly selected contributors, cannot herself incorporate these proffered corrections, she can casually ask the contributors to do it if and when they wish – and anyway, after a certain amount of time, the whole shebang is dated, and no one, least of all the editor, cares any longer about what’s accurate and what is not … and golly, maybe next time one of our writers spins the coverage wheel, it will turn out better. Maybe. 

It's just plain breathtaking, isn't it?

If NABC paid these people for advertising, I wonder if the listing would be corrected, or merely offered to the originator for improvement if the chance arose -- no hurry or anything, and by the way, can you please provide more content, accurate or otherwise?

It's "The Front Page" for modern times, I suppose. Is it any wonder I’m bitter about the state of the information nation?

3. There'll be a talk about historic houses as we celebrate IL's Paradise by the Ongoing Blight.

Never before has a week so utterly filled with doltery and drollery culminated with such an inexplicable travesty as the LBJ-era free-lancer Kaufman's bizarre fluff piece about New Albany at Insider Louisville. One is left with the impression that Kaufman interviewed the city's economic director either by phone, or at a waterside villa near George Clooney's pad on Lake Como.

It was suggested to me that I regard it as slyly facetious, or even overtly satirical. Admittedly, given IL's use of the word "paradise" twice in the e-mail, this seems possible. But I doubt whether IL is that clever, so I asked around and got this from someone I trust:

Kaufman is struggling to keep up with Insider Louisville, and IL has lost its identity as it tries to go big time. Plus, they really try and hide the fact it's a glorified blog; no feet on the ground, just freelancers desperate for a C-note, who won't challenge a soul.

Ouch (insert local media crack here). Dear, dear; where do we look for truth, justice and the American way of life-long tone deafness?

1. There'll be a talk about historic houses amid the felled timber.

2. There'll be a talk about historic houses as we count the felled tree's rings to see how long it's been since Elvis mattered.

"Because it’s not the first question that gets to the truth. It’s the second and third questions."

If I had ever been here before
I would probably know just what to do
Don't you?

---

Terry Boyd: Louisville media and the unasked $64 million questions

By TERRY BOYD | Published: MAY 29, 2013

How do I put this respectfully?

When people dissemble, they generally are reverting – sometimes involuntarity– to a Darwinian survival mode.

Especially in a big business or financial deal, they do what they need to do to get out of a tight spot.

But a very intentional message embedded in a transparent lie is, “You’re so stupid, we can tell you anything.”

The problem with a Louisville media that it is so incurious and so math- and finance-challenged is that you really can tell them anything.

County council's Schellenberger finds someone else to blame for his own body's proclivities.

Earth to John Schellenberger: There's no need to blame the newspaper and/or the parks board for "misinformation" in the case of Community Park, not when Ted Heavrin (and Larry McAllister before him -- they were the Martin and Lewis of the County Council, remember?) -- spent the past decade making hints about sell-offs, strip malls and "our way or the highway through it."

John, if you want your furniture shredded, get a cat, and if you want 1940's-era thinking, keeping letting the same two dudes run your council. It's that simple.

Meanwhile, the reporter Morris does his job well and locates the best quote of the night, from council youngster Brad Striegel:

“This is a quality of life issue. Funding will be tough on both sides, but we have an obligation to meet. I’m tired of hearing how the [David] Camm trial is going to hijack quality of life in this area.”

Me, too. Someone buy that man a cigar.

Floyd County OKs parks deal; City Council will take final vote on measure April 19, by Chris Morris (Pop-Up Reproduction Laboratory)

... However, before the final vote, county Councilman John Schellenberger had several questions for NA-FC Parks Board President Scott Klink and Director Roger Jeffers. After those questions were answered, Schellenberger said he didn’t think it was fair to make threats in the newspaper about closing a particular facility or trying to make the county council look like the “bad guy” during the process.

“Why would you say you would close Community Park and not other parks. That misinformation gets people stirred up,” Schellenberger said. “I feel like we are being used as a pawn in all this when it’s a bigger issue. It bothers me that something lands in the Tribune and gets people all stirred up. People read it and think we are going to close Community Park.”

Another Hibbard Heads-Up: NA/FC Schools Admin seeking public participation changes.

According to messages NAC received this weekend, it seems NA/FC Schools Superintendent Bruce Hibbard and crew are at it again, proposing new, more restrictive rules for the public's engagement with the school board who supposedly serves them. It was clear enough during the school closure debacle that Dr. Hibbard is wary of communicating with the public. Apparently, he's uncomfortable with the public communicating with the school board and each other as well.

Click on the images for new public participation school board bylaws being proposed by NA/FC Schools Administration:


The old rules can be found at the school system's web site in the School Board section.

A message of concern from Mark Kessans, president of the local teachers association:

The above bylaw was written and is being recommended for passage by the Central Administration. It is apparent to the Association that the Administration is attempting to put into place measures that will allow the administration and Board to silence both the public’s and the Association’s ability to peacefully and adequately express concerns to the Board. It is also an attempt to prevent the Public and the Association from organizing to attend and speak at a school board meeting.

The Association especially finds paragraphs G -4 and G-5 to be very troubling, along with the requirement of a 10 day notification in order to request that an item be placed on the agenda. Paragraphs E, F, G-1, 2 and 3 are very sufficient safeguards to ensure a productive, safe and orderly meeting and a five day notification would be reasonable.

I have made numerous attempts to meet with Bill Briscoe to discuss and edit the troubling language. Bill has repeatedly told me that the Administration is holding firm on this and will not agree to make ANY edits to the proposed bylaw language. I have also sent an e-mail to each school board member expressing the Association’s concern and requesting that they make a motion to amend and/or support the removal of the three troubling components of the Bylaw. After nearly twenty four hours, I have not received the first reply to my request from any school board member.

If any of you have a personal working relationship with any School Board Member, I would encourage you to make a special point to contact them and encourage them to support rejecting the replacement by-law. Admittedly by the Administration, there has been no problem with the current by-law and it has served the board well. At a minimum, please encourage board members to support the removal of the above three items. This will allow whoever is President of the Board the authority to silence the voice of anyone that would like to address the Board if he or she does not want to hear what anyone has to say. (Censorship?) I thought that we lived in America where we enjoyed “Freedom of Speech”. How does the proposed bylaw language align with what we teach our students about Freedom of Speech?

Please share this e-mail with anyone that may voice our concerns. I would also encourage you, others and the general public to attend the Board Meeting this coming Monday, December 13, 2010, at 6:00pm in the ESC. Be sure to sign up to speak to influence Board Members to either amend or “vote down” the above bylaw. This bylaw would allow the President of the Board to abuse his or her authority and have sole censorship authority over who speaks, what is placed on the agenda and what is discussed at future Board Meetings. This holds true even if the board meeting continues or is adjourned and reconvened at a later time or date.

I would appreciate as many of you as possible attending Monday’s meeting and signing up to speak regarding this bylaw, or at a minimum, attending and supporting those of us who will be addressing the Board with our concerns.

I look forward to seeing each of you at Monday’s Board meeting!

Sincerely,
Mark Kessans
President
New Albany-Floyd County Education Association
Bonterra Building, Suite 100
3620 Blackiston Boulevard
New Albany, IN 47150-8529
800-638-5711 ext.# 4
nafcea2400@gmail.com

Some commentary/beginning talking points:

1. Though it's become commonplace for the likes of State Representative Ed Clere and State Education Superintendent Tony Bennett to blast teachers unions for exhibiting behavior strikingly similar to their own, it's worth noting here that the local union president is the only person currently trying to inform the public that their access to the school board may be changing. Union 1, Management 0.

2. The process for submitting items to the school board for agenda inclusion was flawed even before the 10 day advance was proposed. Other than submitting her or his own agenda requests, the superintendent should have no say in what the board does or does not discuss. There is simply no justification for giving the Superintendent the authority to approve or disapprove such requests from the public. Though Hibbard seems set on acting otherwise, the elected board is the superintendent's boss and not the other way around. The school board exists to protect the public's interests, not the superintendent's. As such, agenda items should be submitted to the full board for their inclusive consideration, not to the superintendent. If the board wants to change the rules, they should start there.

The 10 day advance for agenda item requests is troubling as well, owing to the superintendent's and the school system's usual lack of public communication. As we've seen repeatedly over the past few years, school initiatives are often kept hidden from public view until the last breakneck moments before a vote. This proposed public participation bylaw change is just the latest example of what has become an all too common practice.

What's actually needed is not a shortened time frame for public concerns and idea generation but an extended period of public notification, allowing proper research, debate, and communication to take place.

As an aside: Internal communication doesn't seem to be much better. The first communiqué I received about this matter did not include the actual bylaw language proposed. In an effort to be informed and fair, I contacted a school board member in order to familiarize myself with the proposal's specifics. As of Saturday morning, at least some of the school board members had received neither an agenda nor an information packet related to Monday's meeting and had no idea that bylaw changes were even being proposed. The public, on the other hand, is expected to have their act together well in advance to be considered at all.

3. Paragraph F states that oral complaints about specific students and/or personnel will not be heard. It further suggests that employees contact their immediate supervisor about complaints relative to employment. That makes sense in every case except as it pertains to the superintendent. The school board is the superintendent's immediate supervisor. Whether intentional or not, this rule in effect states that the board will not hear criticism of the superintendent. That's unacceptable.

4. Mr. Kessans rightfully points out problems with G-4 and G-5, which gives the school board president the authority to single-handedly adjourn meetings abruptly and to limit the number of speakers. Given that no consistent guidelines are provided for making such decisions, what's discussed is left entirely up to the discretion of a single person, inviting, as Mr. Kessans suggests, abuse and censorship. If 20 people show up to speak to a particular issue and the president limits the number of speakers to 10, how will he or she decide who is heard and who is not? If the public, according to these bylaws, are not allowed to register complaints about Dr. Hibbard and three people in a row complain about him, is that grounds for adjournment?

5. The audio and video recording rules are problematic as well. Again, decisions about access should not be made by the superintendent. It's not her or his meeting. And, again, as evidenced by this particular situation and many others, the lack of school system communication makes a requirement for five days advanced recording approval untenable. Having become aware of the proposed public participation changes (no thanks to the school system) just yesterday, let's say that I'm now concerned enough that I think recording is justified so that the public can witness what transpires at the meeting on Monday. According to the rules, I won't be allowed to record because, through the school system's fault, an approval request five days in advance is impossible.

In an era when large media corporations like Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. (the Tribune's owner) are demanding that staff take unpaid furlough days to cut costs, citizen-driven reporting is becoming more important, not less so. Curtailing access for those inclined to provide it would be a clear sign that the school corporation doesn't want coverage, which is precisely the attitude that justifies more of it.

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The next school board meeting is tomorrow, December 13, at 6:00 p.m. at the Education Support Center, 2801 Grant Line Road. That unfortunately overlaps with the Tolling Authority's "public forum", so take your pick or do both in succession.

Development, intervention -- what to write, what not to write.

One passage struck home in this balanced review of what sounds like a must-read for me at some point in the near future.

Bright Continent: 'Africa - Altered States, Ordinary Miracles,' by Nicholas Kristof, New York Times book review

... I’ve thought a good deal about these issues, partly because I’m often a purveyor of columns about war and disaster in Africa, from Darfur to Congo to AIDS in southern Africa. And frankly, it’s discomfiting to feel that I’m helping Africa by exposing such catastrophes, and then have African leaders complain — as they do — that such reporting undermines their access to foreign investment and their ability to expand their economies and overcome poverty.

It's a variation of the theme we grapple with here in New Albany. Do we continue explicating the insanity of what doesn't work right and risk losing the positives, thus scaring away people we're trying to attract?

But don't those people deserve to know what they're getting into before committing to the investment?

Fascists donate to McCain, Communists to Obama. I'm suppressing a yawn.

I was taken to task yesterday after posting Keith Olbermann’s brilliant commentary.

casualobsever said...

As noted and commented on another local blog, you would be far more credible if you actually chose political opinions from someone other than one of the most liberal reporters currently working and associated with the most liberal news organization.

The radical left rantings are really not going to sway anyone's opinion that may be sitting on the fence.

Hmm, couldn’t I say exactly the same thing about radical right rantings?

And, might that be precisely the point I’m trying to make by countering Dr. Dan’s diatribes with purposefully selected ones of my own?

Could be, although irony plays in America about as well as team handball.

Consider that our local blogging physician, who used to periodically discuss medicine and health, has staked a bold claim:

The health of Floyd County as well as the nation will be drastically different depending on who gets elected. This site, unlike the mainstream media, will have a conservative slant and will have commentaries that may not be read in other places.

There may be a reason why, but no matter. He’s picking his spots, and I’m picking mine. It strikes me that in this context, any list of media sources purged of the implied contagion of liberalism – these presumably being the ones acceptable to both Dr. Dan and the dissenting writer – might well prove to be just as biased from a rightist perspective as any emanating from the left -- and consequently, unacceptable to me.

So, what would they have me do, visit World Net Daily?

(WNT, by the way, once published a column asserting that the Wall Street Journal’s conservative leaning is a “myth” because, among other offenses, too many gays work for the newspaper. WNT is an anti-Obama "news" source. Imagine that.)

If I had the temerity to cite Frank Rich or even Bob Woodward, it probably wouldn’t pass muster, and accordingly, the crux to me is this: At the current juncture in the presidential campaign, who in America can really be said to remain "sitting on the fence” in the sense of being open to any form of rational persuasion?

Irrational?

That’s another story, especially as it pertains to voting against Barack Obama for being black, or for John McCain because he reminds someone in the hinterlands of his dear departed grandfather.

The false positive of culture wars aside, the “health of Floyd County as well as the nation” has to do with economic matters, and if you believe that Nancy Peolosi bears more responsibility for the current mess than George W. Bush, there are two probable consequences.

First, you’ll be voting McCain/Palin, and no source I manage to uncover will change your mind.

Second, I have one big ass bridge to sell you. It doesn’t go anywhere, but it’s cheap … and you can charge it to your credit card.

A better question, Jack: Does anyone have a "plan of where he wants to take this community?"

More excellent publicity for the city of New Albany today, courtesy of a city council whose dysfunction rivals that of Somalia:

Tension rising in in New Albany; 'Fact sheet' divides mayor, City Council, by Dick Kaukas (short shelf life for Courier-Journal links).

In fact, Kaukas’s article is one of the clearer expositions to date of the numerous, ahem, “communication” issues plaguing the council (and, in fairness, the mayor’s office) for the past three years.

Here’s a good one:

Council member Bill Schmidt also didn't attend but said he saw news accounts of what happened.

"I have been on the City Council for 16 years and I have never seen such unacceptable behavior at a public meeting," Schmidt said.

Of course, it is famously difficult to judge such matters when not actually present, although perhaps the Bicknell's private videotaping concern provided excerpted highlights, but at least CM Schmidt’s recollections are accurate in the sense that he and his shadow councilwoman do the bulk of their plotting and scheming decorously, away from the council table itself.

This one’s even better:

"That fact sheet was nothing more than dirty politics," said council member Dan Coffey, "and it's unfortunate that some members of the council have stooped to that level."

Any council member engaged in stooping will be looking CM Coffey right in the eyes.

What do the council’s consistent displays of unprofessional behavior over the course of three years say to the people who are considering investing in New Albany? What do these say to the community members who are spearheading the effort to attract these investments?

3rd district councilman Steve Price, one of the more predictable impediments to any semblance of progress in the city, apparently takes considerable pride in this these achievements. He tells the reporter Kaukas:

"Some people think all we do is fight. That's not true. But we are definitely not a rubber-stamp council."

Pray tell, "not a rubber stamp"? Looks like the cat is out of grandma’s cigar box, Steve.

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Don’t forget NAC's reprise series:

Part 1: NA Confidential examines Councilman Steve Price's interview responses.
Part 2: NA Confidential examines Councilman Steve Price's interview responses.
Part 3: NA Confidential examines Councilman Steve Price's interview responses.