I just watched the WDIO treatment of the story on our plans to take the District to court. DIO is probably the preferred station for older folks in town who don’t turn in at 9:30 after watching Fox News.
I was struck with Tim Grover’s rebuttal. He sounded confident, but there is a fine line between confidence and smugness. I would not be inclined to read smugness into Tim’s comment that the District’s case was “airtight” because the MDE had signed off on it. The staff at the MDE has sounded anything but sure of themselves in our recent conversations with them. They’ve sounded like bureaucrats afraid to make a mistake in the face of the District’s bluster and in the face of its attorneys.
We already know the District’s attorneys make mistakes. The Attorney General said they were wrong to say our petition was invalid. The attorney’s are paid to make the legal case. Half of all attorneys are found wrong when they go to court.
Tim seems to be under the misapprehension that our only case is the single one involving the “loophole” that let the District proceed inspite of Tim’s former belief that a referendum would be necessary. We have many legal challenges to choose from including the unequal enforcement of Duluth’s voting rights under the US Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment. It would be interesting to know whether the District’s lawyers have got that one figured out yet.
Tim has been elected Chair to bluff his way through the next construction season. No one else on this Board is remotely capable of defending the District’s increasingly unpopular decisions. If the audience that watched tonight’s news senses smugness it will not go well for Tim.
It will be interesting to hear how many letters are in our PO Box tomorrow morning.
