{"id":2213,"date":"2009-06-05T11:09:50","date_gmt":"2009-06-05T16:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=2213"},"modified":"2017-03-02T17:54:36","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T22:54:36","slug":"overheard-underwhelmed-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=2213","title":{"rendered":"Overheard &#8211; Underwhelmed # 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From JCI\u2019s \u201cpoor me\u201d schtick in today\u2019s \u201cOverheard\u201d column.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On Let Duluth Vote\u2019s argument in its lawsuit that the contract violates bid laws:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt does no such thing. Professional services are exempt from public bid laws.\u201d &#8211; David<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Even as Mr. David told the Editorial page this the School District&#8217;s lawyers were attempting to send the of the taxpayer&#8217;s case on appeal to a higher court to avoid having the case heard in the Sixth District Court on its merits. They want the Sixth District Judge to rule on an issue which would allow them to hang it up in a higher court for years until they finish the Red Plan&#8217;s construction. It looks as though they are afraid they will lose.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On the sometimes-nasty criticisms leveled in Duluth against Johnson Controls:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt does hurt.\u201d &#8211; Schiltz<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is our community. We live here, too. Our kids go to school here. It is difficult to see ourselves getting beat up.\u201d &#8211; Schiltz<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t have any sort of policy [when it comes to responding], but we\u2019ve chosen to take the high road. It\u2019s hard. If there\u2019s a discussion, we\u2019d like to discuss the facts.\u201d &#8211; David<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we\u2019re going to debate issues, let\u2019s debate, get it settled and move on.\u201d &#8211; David<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe district often gets accused of not listening. They are listening. The plan has fluidity.\u201d &#8211; David<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a very passionate debate throughout the community, and we\u2019re equally serious about it.\u201d &#8211; David<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHealthy debate for a community about a plan is healthy. Debate that always turns to emotions and suspicions is difficult.\u201d &#8211; David<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCharacter assassinations on the superintendent and personal attacks on [school] board members hurt and aren\u2019t part of any healthy dialogue.\u201d &#8211; Schiltz<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Healthy debate my foot. That should have taken place in a referendum two years ago. This deal was consummated to prevent public questions. That&#8217;s why two years after we&#8217;ve requested public information about the contract the District has withheld it even from the Court so far.<\/p>\n<p>As to character assassination I can only speak for my actions. <\/p>\n<p>I describe stupidity greed and other such human failings generally to institutions like the School Board, the City Council, JCI which keeps them from being directed at individuals by name.<\/p>\n<p>I describe actions and use quotations which puts some people in bad light. If someone rolls their eyes, bullies, or withholds information that is an action which requires only the imagination of the reader to assign pejorative adjectives to. It\u2019s my general policy to correct myself when I&#8217;m found to be in error. <\/p>\n<p>There is one &#8220;nasty&#8221; thing I no longer shrink from talking about &#8211; lies. Someone who tells lies regularly is guilty of one or two things. Either they speak in ignorance, which makes them ignorant or they tell them to deceive which makes them a familiar, and yes nasty, four letter word.  At some point a thinking person has to abandon the kindly notion of giving them the benefit of the doubt.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201dIf [Let Duluth Vote] wanted to have a true debate, we\u2019d hear facts about an alternate plan. Then we could stack them side by side. The red plan would look very good then.\u201d &#8211; David<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If we have to depend on the muzzled Duluth News Tribune, you will never hear about our alternative which after herculean efforts is a few days away from a presentation to the Minnesota Dept. of Education. One thing should me made clear now. It will cost a hundred million less and will still lead to the so-called multiplier affect of 1.6 multiplied nearly $200 million dollars for a total spending of $320 million dollars.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s still too big and the current School Board will ignore a favorable vote if it goes to referendum but at least Let Duluth Vote is giving Duluth Voters a chance to express their feelings about the Red Plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From JCI\u2019s \u201cpoor me\u201d schtick in today\u2019s \u201cOverheard\u201d column. On Let Duluth Vote\u2019s argument in its lawsuit that the contract violates bid laws: \u201cIt&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20730,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213\/revisions\/20730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}