As I went to bed last night I reminded myself to check to see if I’d mentioned Tony Diercken’s name in a blog post when he spoke to Glen Avon’s Men’s group. I plugged his name in LD’s search engine but came up with nada. So I tried to put in his website Zenith City Online. What popped up were a couple other posts about the Zenith Weekly newspaper. Again nothing on Tony.
But they were, as my old posts often are, instructive.
The first I read described the candidates who ran for office back in 2013. It had a link to a letter to the Zenith Weekly tabloid penned by Loren Martell. He suggests that the 2013 candidates were over dependent on the District administration for financial information. I now serve with two of the candidates mentioned.
But this first post demonstrated something even more important, the complete financial ignorance of their school board predecessors who also depended upon the administration for financial data. These earlier board members had no idea they were taking money from the general fund, available for classrooms, and funneling it into Red Plan debt repayment. Worse they falsely, perhaps cluelessly, informed the public in op ed columns that no such thing had been happening. At no point did the Tribune’s editorial board call them on the carpet for this gross misinformation which was being pedaled in their paper.
The second post described the all too brief sea change after I was seated when I was still trying to be a good sport about our work on the board with my fellow board members. I wrote this which is perhaps suggestive of what was to come:
One last anecdote which I found very humorous and I hope doesn’t twist anyone’s knickers. I plan on jollying up my sometimes contentious Board colleagues and will tease them mercilessly, if gently, as time goes on. During our meeting Rosie, Judy and I had a short conference over something I’ve long forgotten when Rosie answered a question I tossed to her by saying, “Art – uh – Harry,” I piped up and asked, “Rosie, was that a Freudian slip?” Flustered Rosie explained, “Well Art’s been on my mind a lot lately.” Judy and I both guffawed at that. BTW, I’ve been teasing Art a lot lately too. Kumbayah here I come.
