Germantown Unsettled ...

Ah, the Germantown Settlement situation; Germantown's cousin to the CHCA saga.

The Germantown Chronicle for August 23 isn't out yet, the story hasn't been read and Emanuel V. Freeman thinks he knows what will be revealed. The web was buzzing starting at 8 Wednesday morning.

"Much of their information is not accurate," sez Freeman. Freeman couldn't have read it, but he has his message flying all around the intertubes in Northwest Philly and is spinning his damage control as fast as he can. Take a look at who gets the e-mail sent this morning - Philadelphia politicians with toeholds in Harrisburg.

According to Freeman, the Chronicle follows the "negative editorial practices of the former Germantown Courier." Please. The Courier was fish wrap from JRC, suitable for burying dead guppies from the home aquarium. It had neither the time nor the staff to investigate what was going on with the Settlement outfit.

And Emanuel, what about those houses on the 200 block of Penn Street? How they holding up?

So, Emanuel, read the story and then critique it. It lends a little credibility to your arguments, however weak they may be.

You want to read the story, get this week's Germantown Chronicle (August 20). The piece is on the paper's web site today - Wednesday, August 19.

So here's this morning breathless spin from EVF of GS. In the e-mails below, non-government addresses have been redacted.

Unabashed Sunshine Policy Statement: I, Scott Alloway, work at the Chronicle in several capacities, not the least being web editor.

From: "Youngblood, Rosita"
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:23:50 -0400
To: Tim S. Ries; RT Donovan; Wall, Cherise; Tolentino, David; Barabin, Rochelle
Subject: FW: Germantown Chronicle

FYI


From: McClure, Miriam
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 8:04 AM
To: Donna Reed Miller (donna.miller@phila.gov); david.yurky@phila.gov; Myers, John; Kinsey, Stephen; LeAnna Washington (washington@pasenate.com); Evans, Dwight; Youngblood, Rosita; Curtis Jones; marian.tasco@phila.gov
Cc: Freeman, Emanuel V.
Subject: Germantown Chronicle
Importance: High

To Friends of Germantown Settlement:

The Germantown Chronicle is going to run an article on GS/GGHDC and it will likely attempt to paint a very negative picture. It will draw attention to the financial challenges we are facing, including payroll, city and state taxes (all of which we have secured payment agreements for), and any IRS issues (we have also addressed and have submitted a proposed agreement which has not yet been approved).

Much of their information is not accurate but nonetheless it will further damage our image as an organization. This is the primary purpose of such articles. I have attempted to address some of what they raised but do not think they are likely to print much, if anything, that I said. While GS and GGHDC do have some liens and judgments (some of which were paid off or are included in our 2006 refi of the Burgess Center and some of the appropriate adjustments have not yet been made), I suspect what we outlined will also not be updated.

We have secured financing commitments for the Germantown YWCA (and the city is allowing us the needed time to move forward on this project). Our loan on the Burgess Center has matured and we have identified the sources to refinance. We have a new venture, identified as Medical Adult Day Care, and have just submitted financing proposals for the development and it will replace aging services. Our properties at 324 East High Street and Waring House at 48 East Penn Street will be converted into Child Care Centers. Together, these projects will generate more than enough revenue to pay off all liens and bring current any taxes that may become due between now and the end of the year.

We have executed a partnership agreement with a for-profit firm to co-develop the GYWCA. This site will in fact become our new home and the GYWCA will be placed back into service as a viable community facility. Within the next few months, we will complete the leasing on Burgess Center.

Wendy’s is now under construction and we expect to lease out the space now occupied by GS and GGHDC staff. This will likely require us to relocate to another section of the Burgess Center. This move will be temporary until the GYWCA is completed.

While the Germantown Chronicle is a new paper, it continues to follow the negative editorial practices of the former Germantown Courier. In many ways these are the same people that we, and the elected officials that support us, feel have historically treated us unfairly.

Other organizations within this community have challenges, but no one seems to make it public and write articles about them. We are resolved to stay the course, address our issues and continue to serve our people the best we can with what we have.

Thanks,

Emanuel V Freeman

Where's Walter?

Gee, after my last response to Walter Sullivan, he hasn't written a thing on this blog. I guess he's satisfied with his regular Local column. I would comment on them at length, but I haven't been able to get through one yet. Anybody else?

And hey, look for me at the big Snowden Book Fair this weekend. Even though I'm a published author, with a book chosen as national Reader's Club Selection, (Art Howe-any Books?)no one contacted me to participate. I guess I'll just show up. I wonder what the tax advantage is regarding holding a community event in a vacant auto showroom? Richie Rich is always thinking. Every one of my limericks to be presented at the Hill Tavern on Saturday night will be about you, my Darling. But maybe one about Dina too. What rhymes with "sociopath"?

The Record Shows...

I don't usually do this. In fact I never do it . When someone criticizes my work without actually contradicting it, I just let it lay. If you don't have counter facts, or equal style, why should I ? I don't argue with people who just say I'm wrong, or mean, or ...something. And threats don't work either. But since so many of you still may not get it, or don't read ANY newspaper, and since, after putting off finishing that last Walter-like fog-bowl response of journalistic parvenu, I felt perhaps some parallel facts may be in order.

He accused me of judging others wholly on the basis of their having opinions differing from my own. I assume that he assumes that other local citizens who have run from the CHCA like Bambi's family from the forest fire has nothing to do with them seeing exactly what I saw. I also assume that he assumes that the oversight committee, made up of two attorneys and a former banker made up all of the report that was never contradicted by the board before, during, or after it abolished the oversight committee before its term expired.

But perhaps my accuser, who may or may not have a law degree, or be a member of any city democratic infrastructure, would listen to some others who, after a little investigation, have come to ally themselves with my "personal" agenda.

I called Trustee Chip Butler dishonest and a bad liar. In print. In the Local. I presented corroborated facts. Within months, he was arrested, charged, convicted, and sentenced by the Eastern District Court. I had no prior knowledge of this. But I wasn't shocked.

I called John Capoferri some similar things in the Local. He has been arrested on multiple charges and will appear in the Dock on June 11.

The Pennsylvania State Attorney General, who, at last look, doesn't investigate organizations because their opinions "differ" from my own, or their own, or from anybody's own. They investigate on FACTS. Some of the facts I, and others have given them, are the same ones I have written about in the Local, and here.

So Walter, or whomever, or whomever is telling you to threaten me or Scott with legal action because of what I accuse you and your masters of, know that three different law enforcement agencies have found precisely what I have .

That the board is dirty. That the trustees can't be trusted. That those who the board has harbored and defended are, by the LEGAL definition of the word, CRIMINALS.

Want me to call the same law enforcement officials who investigated, arrested, charged, and sentenced the same people I accused first to the witness stand? I'd like that.

We can also discuss Dina and the ballots, Richard and the signs, and Walter and the vote count electing him to the CHCA presidency, that he pretended not to know at the meeting, but was actually told about before the meeting, before the vote was taken. I guess he confuses the big "D' in the the Democratic committee he belongs to with the little "d" in democracy that secret ballots are supposed to represent. We could talk about that too.

That the emperor has no clothes has long been known around the hill. What the emperor has been doing with a certain portion of his exposed anatomy is a matter of record.

Discuss Among Yourselves

Ed Note: There are two cross-comments today that deserve posting to further the discussion on the Chestnut Hill Community Fund, the Chestnut Hill Community Association and the inter-related cluster-f that it encompasses. As an aside, Keintz has not been replaced as treasurer despite his obvious incompetence (he is a walking joke) and Sullivan (BDD-prez), Piotrowski (VP Operations) and Aiello (VP Physical Division) take us back to the Maxinista years. Incompetency has its reward. But at least the board has fall guys now. As an aside, word has it Pat Moran has resigned. Nancy Hutter moves up to the board. How long will Phil retain the Community Manager slot? And with Richard Snowden on the CHCA board, the tragi-comedy is complete.

Also, a small collection of commenters from familiar IPs keep sending "give it up" and "move forward" messages. It's much like the Coulter-Malkin-Limbaugh refrain we hear about the Cheney-Bush years. Guys, make your own blog to tell people what you think. Because you don't sign your posts or request "no name," you don't get posted. You may as well know that as moderator, I get a lede that gives me the first seven words. I delete it as to not waste time. I never see the rest of your BS. Keep your auto-erotism to yourselves. Please, make your own site.

Scott Alloway, Waylaid Pilgrim

Posted by Jeremiade

Jim: Insider manipulation? The change in the Fund (CHCF) that happened in the 1990's was a decision by the trustees to move from bonds (bond funds) to stocks (funds also). It was an attempt to earn more on the substantial holdings of the Fund. It can not be characterized as manipulation. The trustees are chosen by the CHCA board to make those decisions. Perhaps the trustees decisions were poor (known only in hindsight) but I doubt that the trustees gained personally. Who hasn't lost money in this market? You owe an appology to the trustees for your comparison to Madoff.

As far as financial information withheld from board members, that is the responsibility of the Treasurer. CHCA boards elect the treasurer and he has access to the brokerage statements which are mailed to both the CHCF and the CHCA at Town Hall. It was wrong for any treasurer to withhold such information from board members and, to this day, I have no idea why that was done. You had an incompetent treasurer who was elected by the board, the same board that elected the Fund trustees. As far as the Fund loans to the CHCA, the fake signature was that of the CHCA president who was also elected by the board. (I do not believe this act will be determined to be anything but sloppiness and laziness, not wrongdoing.) The Fund should not have made any loans not directed to do so by the CHCA board. Problematic cash flow must be reported to the board by the treasurer, who should present a resolution to borrow money from the Fund.

I can agree with you that the CHCA boards have acted improperly (not just in financial matters) but your spin of these financial matters is just plain wrong. If Trustee McGuckin and Treasurer Keintz are not doing their jobs properly, then replace them.

The purchase of 8431 Gtn Ave was never intended to make money. CHCA boards never carried through on their original plans for the building and ultimately sold it. Sure the whole thing was a mistake, but again, there was no wrongdoing. And the mistake was one made by the CHCA board in not having a realistic plan.

I think you meant well but you are too off base factually to be effective. Sadly, you are right that there is little left to respect in the CHCA. That's why the CHRA is trying to take root. But there's always hope and another election next year.

Jeremiade


Note: May 31. The Foster repsonse has been corrected for typos.

Response by Jim Foster:

The title of the post I recently made was “Deflection and Self-Protection,” [since corrected - ed.] and not Self-Reflection and it was intended to characterize the words of Messrs. McGuckin and Nottingham that were published in the Local, and many of the actions and manipulations of by-laws and process over the years.

To respond to Jeremaide who does properly outline what the well structured CHCA and CHCF guiding documents require of its officers and directors, I will state the following:

There are no existing minutes from CHCF trustees or CHCA board meetings where the decision to move to high yield investments took place. In fact there are no existing minutes in the Fund minute book going back 23 years as per notation in the current minutes provided by this group of trustees. That declaration is in the handwriting and signed by the Secretary of the current trustees. No minutes for 23 years! Believe me, we searched for the minutes of the trustees for the entire period from the late 1990s up through 2006-07 and found none (also many CHCA board meeting minutes were missing from that same period)

My personal 3 hour interview with Trustee President Butler in 2007 included questions about those minutes and trustee meetings where the loans were authorized using Fund assets as security and his reply was “I have no recollection when we ever met, and those loans should not have been made.” He further commented that while he knew they were moving money from the trust without proper oversight, that he should never have let it happen. “They were robbing the piggy bank and I did not stop it” was the quote I believe. However, he made specific reference to the final use of the Fund-owned building at 8431 to secure a $50,000 loan to an out-of-area bank claiming he had no knowledge it was made. Not only does that loan have a signature of the CHCA President claiming she was the CHCF President, but an accompanying notarized signature on a separate document is where that person swears she holds that title with the Fund. Clearly there is no accident here, and it was done by a knowing individual who was not naïve or uninformed as to process, corporate structure, and responsibility.

It must be noted here that the transfers of funds from CHCF accounts to CHCA were frequent and were done through the simple signatures of bookkeepers and clerks on checks. Not one officer ever signed those transfers and check writing authority in any amount on any account was held by three employees who could sign individually, and did so. It was not until after we implemented the first group of recommendations of the Oversight Committee in 2007 that two signatures were required and officers were to be the signers.

Bottom line, a part-time bookkeeper and a part-time administrator had full check signing authority in any amount at any time on any account. Not only was that a fact, but the tax returns (1120s) and non-profit annual returns (990s) were never signed by an officer during that period despite the fact that the federal forms used state “Signature of Officer” directly under that line.

Tell me how a 45 year old organization and 25 year old trust fund in a community where most folks are college graduates and above, that runs a million dollar newspaper and a two million dollar trust fund, and makes all those mistakes accidentally. Compounding the problem is that denial that these things ever happened is alive and well to this day. Some have even charged that members of the reform board of 2006 forged those documents. No proper audit was ever done for 2005 and 2006 for either entity and it was during those fiscal years that most of the money was moved from trust to CHCA without controls. It is not just the treasurer alone who failed here. As the Oversight Committee stated in its summary report, we felt that the trustees were the final security, protector of assets and firewall for the money in the tax exempt trust, and had they followed only the minimum standards by holding meetings and keeping records, none of the rest could have happened. Even if the board was easily manipulated (and they obviously were) if they could not get to the trust fund money, the whole process would have ground to a halt in 2005 at the latest.

As to the purchase of 8431 and the claim that it was never intended to make money for the Fund, I was not there, nor did we find minutes that support that claim. What we did learn was that it was supposed to “break even” after expenses and debt service through rentals, but then provide space for community events in one portion. What financial records do show is that it lost money virtually every month it was owned and was rarely fully occupied for years. Now, if the Fund chooses to be in the real estate business, it is to monitor its assets, and clearly it did not. I would call that another trustee failure, but again no minutes or records they ever took it up exist, and they owned the building. Now, the board did discuss this from time to time, but no remedial action that moved the building into at least break-even was ever accomplished, and furthermore the use of it for public purposes never happened either. For that reason when they sold the building the IRS penalized the fund $70,000 or so as it violated the rules for a non-profit owning real estate. When will these administrative accidents stop happening?

Sure a better treasurer would have helped, but so would a board that was interested in performance more than resume enhancement, so would trustees whose names we never really knew for sure, as there were no documents or complete board minutes which stated for certain who was a trustee and for what period. Mr. Butler claimed he knew at the 11th hour when he sold the building to Bowman properties and dragged two individuals to a meeting who “supported” his actions, but it was never verified that they were serving according to the Trust Indenture, and when questioned about that Mr. Butler stated that an emergency provision in that document let him make that decision on his own.

All the reform group ever requested was a true outside audit by a professional independent auditor who was familiar with non-profits and the laws that accompanied them when there were affiliated for profit relationships. After that was done, we suggested filing amended tax and non-profit returns, tightening up the inside financial rules, and moving ahead on sold footing - - something that definitely did not exist in my view for at least the previous 7-8 years. No one wanted anyone prosecuted, nor did we want to continue the debate, just make the corrections and admit they needed to be made. It was that “admitting” part that sent shock waves through Chestnut Hill.

Instead a massive push back against any action but the minor office procedures began and in the process it has destroyed the CHCA and CHCF credibility to the point that it is now the tool of another group who want to use if for their own narrow agendas, not the “quality of life of Chestnut Hill and the surrounding areas” as the documents so well drawn years ago state.

The problem in nutshell is that some very educated folks think those documents are a joke and the fund, with its tax free shelter, is their financial sandbox

Just a few accidental administrative errors - - not a chance.

Jim Foster.

Karma's a Bitch

If Walter Sullivan can be Chestnut Hill Community Association prez-to-be and Geraldine Hitchcock the treasurer wanna-be, what does that make Rob Remus, Operations-honcho would-be, guardian of civility on Germantown Avenue and the subject of a visit by Philadelphia's finest to the Local office a few months back?

Oh, wait. Rob may be busy.

From the Philadelphia city civil docket...


Case Description

Case ID: 090531568
Case Caption: CITY OF PHILA vs REMUS ROBERT C
Filing Date: Friday , May 15th, 2009
Court: JD - JUDGMENTS
Location: CH - City Hall
Jury: N - NON JURY
Case Type: 7G - CLAIM FOR GAS SERVICE
Status: JDPGW - GAS SERVICE CLAIM JDGMNT FILED

Related Cases

No related cases were found.

Case Event Schedule

No case events were found.

Case Parties

Seq # Assoc Expn Date Type ID Name
1 PLAINTIFF I1000 CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
Address: C/O LAW DEPARTMENT
1515 ARCH ST, 15TH FLOOR
PHILADELPHIA PA 19102-1595 Aliases: none

2 DEFENDANT @6299107 REMUS, ROBERT C
Address: ARDLEIGH STREET 7801
PHILA PA 19118 Aliases: none


Docket Entries

Filing Date/Time Docket Type Filing Party Disposition Amount Approval/
Entry Date
15-MAY-2009
09:00 PM ACTIV - ACTIVE CASE 15-MAY-2009
09:00 PM
Docket Entry: none.

15-MAY-2009
09:00 PM JDPGW - GAS SERVICE CLAIM JDGMNT FILED CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, $1,134.74 15-MAY-2009
09:00 PM
Docket Entry: none.

15-MAY-2009
09:00 PM CTYCH - CITY CHARGE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, 15-MAY-2009
09:00 PM
Docket Entry: none.


--

Case Description

Case ID: 090304112
Case Caption: GMAC MORTGAGE,LLC VS REMUS ETAL
Filing Date: Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
Court: MR - MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE
Location: CH - City Hall
Jury: N - NON JURY
Case Type: 3D - RESIDENTIAL OWNER OCCUPIED-MR
Status: ACTIV - ACTIVE CASE

Related Cases

No related cases were found.

Case Event Schedule

Event Date/Time Room Location Judge
CONCILIATION CONFERENCE 11-JUN-2009
01:00 PM City Hall Courtroom 676, City Hall unassigned


Case Parties

Seq # Assoc Expn Date Type ID Name
1 ATTORNEY FOR PLAINTIFF A62695 HALLINAN, FRANCIS S
Address: 1617 JFK Blvd
ONE PENN CENTER
STE 1400
Philadelphia PA 19103
(215)563-7000 Aliases: none

2 1 PLAINTIFF @6257106 GMAC MORTGAGE,LLC
Address: 1100 VIRGINIA DRIVE
P.O. BOX 8300
FORT WASHINGTON PA 19034 Aliases: none

3 DEFENDANT @6257107 REMUS, ROBERT C.
Address: 7801 ARDLEIGH STREET
PHILADELPHIA PA 19118-4405 Aliases: none

4 DEFENDANT @6257108 REMUS, EILEEN M.
Address: 7801 ARDLEIGH STREET
PHILADELPHIA PA 19118-4405 Aliases: none

5 ATTORNEY FOR PLAINTIFF A62205 SCHMIEG, DANIEL G
Address: 1617 JFK BLVD
SUITE 1400
PHILADELPHIA PA 19103 Aliases: none


Docket Entries

Filing Date/Time Docket Type Filing Party Disposition Amount Approval/
Entry Date
25-MAR-2009
01:44 PM ACTIV - ACTIVE CASE 25-MAR-2009
03:22 PM
Docket Entry: E-Filing Number: 0903039745

25-MAR-2009
01:44 PM CIVIL - COMMENCEMENT OF CIVIL ACTION HALLINAN, FRANCIS S 25-MAR-2009
03:22 PM
Docket Entry: none.

25-MAR-2009
01:44 PM CMPLT - COMPLAINT FILED NOTICE GIVEN HALLINAN, FRANCIS S $421,090.74 25-MAR-2009
03:22 PM
Docket Entry: COMPLAINT WITH NOTICE TO DEFEND WITHIN TWENTY (20) DAYS AFTER SERVICE IN ACCORDANCE WITH RULE 1018.1 FILED.

25-MAR-2009
01:44 PM SSCG2 - SHERIFF'S SURCHARGE 2 DEFTS HALLINAN, FRANCIS S 25-MAR-2009
03:22 PM
Docket Entry: none.

25-MAR-2009
01:44 PM CMOIS - CASE MANAGEMENT ORDER ISSUED HALLINAN, FRANCIS S 25-MAR-2009
03:22 PM
Docket Entry: none.

25-MAR-2009
03:22 PM CONCL - CONCILIATION CONF SCHEDULED 25-MAR-2009
03:22 PM
Docket Entry: SCHEDULED FOR CONCILIATION CONFERENCE ON JUNE 11, 2009, AT 01:00 PM AT THE CITY HALL, ROOM 676.

06-APR-2009
10:41 AM AFDVT - AFFIDAVIT OF SERVICE FILED SCHMIEG, DANIEL G 06-APR-2009
02:39 PM
Docket Entry: AFFIDAVIT OF SERVICE OF PLAINTIFF'S COMPLAINT UPON ROBERT C. REMUS BY PERSONAL SERVICE ON 03/31/2009 FILED. (FILED ON BEHALF OF GMAC MORTGAGE,LLC)

06-APR-2009
10:49 AM AFDVT - AFFIDAVIT OF SERVICE FILED SCHMIEG, DANIEL G 06-APR-2009
02:44 PM
Docket Entry: AFFIDAVIT OF SERVICE OF PLAINTIFF'S COMPLAINT UPON EILEEN M. REMUS BY PERSONAL SERVICE ON 03/31/2009 FILED. (FILED ON BEHALF OF GMAC MORTGAGE,LLC)

And the Winners Are ...

The Chestnut Hill Community Association election results: It's easier to go to the "Coach wants to see you. Bring your playbook" call. They were Nancy Hutter and Jim Foster. John Ingersoll of the Chestnut Hill Cheese Shop was the top vote getter.

Now, let's go off on a tangent - Anonymous raises issues of the text of the constitution versus case law; this in response to a comment in "Rules handed down .... " In true Cheney-speak, it is said "perhaps you should extend your reading beyond the text of the US Constitution itself, to the caselaw that interprets same, as well as other law that is applicable to the issue at hand." Shakespeare had something to say about lawyers in Henry VI (Part 2). But I digress. The train wreck that the Chestnut Hill Community Asociation board of directors has become continues to be that awful thing no one wants to see, but is the kind of crash everyone slows to look at when they drive by.

Back to the kangaroo court justices and ballot takers of this past year. My belief is the current president of CHCA is more comfortable with the Greek-style military dictatorships of the sixties than a town hall democracy. And the operations chief would have fit in quite comfortably as a hit woman in Cheney's office of the VPUS. What this next board will bring (another attempt to ramrod a faulty and anti-labor personnel policy down employees throats, for one) will soon be unveiled.

Ed Feldman promises to post excerpts from the personnel policy proposal. These may prove enlightening.

The Shadow War: Blue Dog Edition

On February 4, 2009, Chestnut Hill Community Association directors Mark Keintz and Bob Rossman delivered a new ultimatum from a CHCA board faction in the form of a "final warning" to Chestnut Hill Local editor Pete Mazzaccaro. This despite losing a 14-12 vote - in secret only days earlier - to summarily fire him for doing his job.

Even though two of the cabal that seeks to control the Local have resigned since the vote, even though the entire set of actions is in direct violation of the CHCA by-laws and, finally, without any sort of mandate, let alone a plurality of support by the true owners of the Local - the members of the community association - this group insists on forging ahead, determined to silence the one organization deliberately created as a watchdog for the community against the very sort of machinations being executed by a select group of the current board.

Preceding this were a series of exchanges among board members, notable in their not addressing problems but looking to lay the blame on staff of the Local for the troubles created by the clumsy interventions of certain board members.

A telling comment came from Walter Sullivan, Philadelphia Democratic Party honcho and newly-minted board member. Sullivan said in an e-mail to selected parties:

"I do not challenge their right to say on their blog what they feel. But those feelings and attitudes among our employees need give us deep concern. Yes, we have a problem with the attitudes of our employees. For example, just read the Alloway/Joel Hoffman/Lombardi Northwest Notebook blog at: http://chnotebook.blogspot.com. [Ed Note: You're there. Don't go looking for it.] Yes, we must find ways to address and ameliorate those concerns. I do not believe that the Bylaws are the vehicle for doing that."

Apparently not, when the executive committee plays by Calvinball rules. It's far easier to meet in secret and plan to pick off those who provide oversight on an individual basis

After a short interval, interrupted by said departures of board directors Learned and Hickey (both expressing legal liability concerns and unaware of the failure of the 'just following orders' defense), Keintz and Rossman carried out their mission like good soldiers.

But we digress. It is this foray into revisionist history (or false memory) that allows Sullivan to offer the stunning excuses to justify the process he endorses. In the missive, he writes:

At the January 22 Bylaws Committee meeting, someone said that the employees felt that they were oppressed. Yes, I then stated that while at least some and perhaps all of them may feel that they are oppressed, they are not oppressed, and that to my certain knowledge one Board member and one former Board member, if not others, had for several years been stirring up among them that feeling of oppression, alienation, and resentment. That dated back at least to the events of late 2005-2006 involving Jim Sturdivant's resignation. It was unfortunate that Jim resigned, for it would have been far better had he brought his concerns to the Board which I know would have vindicated his editorial control. The three people (all employees who naturally enough saw his proposed editorial before publication) and who then counseled him to revise it may have or have not erred, but as co-employees their recommendations scarcely comprised an infringement of editorial control. There was a suspicion that Maxine as President was somehow behind this. Were that true, that would have been such an intolerable infringement. She insisted that she was not, and I have no reason to disbelieve her. That at least, if not before, was where this feeling of oppression, alienation, and resentment among some or all of the employees began."

This comes from some who started his epistle with "Nobody in CHCA but a fool could not be a Friend of the Local, the publication of which is among the most important of our functions if not arguably the most important. As to myself, a lifelong left liberal and supporter of labor (i.e., employees), that goes without saying."

This is a friend of Labor? This is someone who, when contending with labor issues in his own domain, apparently resorts to the old muscle tactics of 19th century industrialists. This man sits as a member of a Democratic Party committee? Can you say Blue Dog? There are surely some Progressives who could better represent working interests. As Democrats, we need to consider our options. Walter Sullivan is no longer an option for the Democratic Party.

Scott Alloway
Registered Democrat