Stock Photo By John HoffAfter being up for less than a day, the shiny new Northside Marketing Task Force website (with the new website smell) has already generated controversy, and I'm not talking about nit-picky little remarks people are making on the comment threads of this blog post, click here. Mike Kestner, who believes himself to be still the Vice Chair of NMTF, with Jerry Moore as the Chair, has fired off an email demanding the website be taken down...
Here is the text of the email, sent to Susan Bendickson, as follows:
Susan,
Please remove the incomplete and unapproved website northminneapolis.com immediately. I am a current NMTF board member (as even the website lists me), and I was not given an opportunity to vote to approve this website. I do not want my name or the NMTF exposed to a lawsuit. In it's (sic) current form, it is a promotional site, not a news site. No release forms were signed with regards to any individuals who are pictured or mentioned on the site. This includes myself.
Mike Kestner
Vice Chair
Northside Marketing Task Force
On a roll, and completely innocent of the correct way to write a possessive "it," Mike then fired off a letter to Jules Inda, the notoriously smoking hot spouse of Pat Carney of the Carney group, as follows:
Susan Bendickson claims that it is The Carney Group that is responsible for posting this NMTF-unapproved website.
This is a formal request to take it down immediately. Only you and I had access to the site's domain administration, as I recall. No legal NMTF vote with quorum has changed this access. The current legal full board of the NMTF had not been consulted at all by The Carney Group, Amalgam, Georgianna or Susan prior to this action.
Until further notice, I ask that you allow for the NMTF (the owner of this site) to make it's (sic) necessary resolutions according to legal board policies, and forego The Carney Group's interest in seeing this work in the public eye.
Thank you,
Mike Kestner
ADDENDUM: February 6, 2011. This blog post was written before I and many others in North Minneapolis discovered what a disreputable con man character Don Allen is. I would advise anybody: Do not trust Don Allen. Seek further information about Don Allen from various online sources before having any contact with him.
Here is the text of the email, sent to Susan Bendickson, as follows:
Susan,
Please remove the incomplete and unapproved website northminneapolis.com immediately. I am a current NMTF board member (as even the website lists me), and I was not given an opportunity to vote to approve this website. I do not want my name or the NMTF exposed to a lawsuit. In it's (sic) current form, it is a promotional site, not a news site. No release forms were signed with regards to any individuals who are pictured or mentioned on the site. This includes myself.
Mike Kestner
Vice Chair
Northside Marketing Task Force
On a roll, and completely innocent of the correct way to write a possessive "it," Mike then fired off a letter to Jules Inda, the notoriously smoking hot spouse of Pat Carney of the Carney group, as follows:
Susan Bendickson claims that it is The Carney Group that is responsible for posting this NMTF-unapproved website.
This is a formal request to take it down immediately. Only you and I had access to the site's domain administration, as I recall. No legal NMTF vote with quorum has changed this access. The current legal full board of the NMTF had not been consulted at all by The Carney Group, Amalgam, Georgianna or Susan prior to this action.
Until further notice, I ask that you allow for the NMTF (the owner of this site) to make it's (sic) necessary resolutions according to legal board policies, and forego The Carney Group's interest in seeing this work in the public eye.
Thank you,
Mike Kestner
ADDENDUM: February 6, 2011. This blog post was written before I and many others in North Minneapolis discovered what a disreputable con man character Don Allen is. I would advise anybody: Do not trust Don Allen. Seek further information about Don Allen from various online sources before having any contact with him.
In the meantime, IBNN blogger Don Allen continues trying to get his board seat back on NMTF. The latest word is Don's being told he filed his grievance too late. But you have to wonder...why would Don want his seat back anyway? Is he just a glutton for punishment?
Now, I know that some people think I shouldn't air all this NMTF conflict on my blog, but I think the colorful bare knuckle politics of NoMi is actually part of the fun of this neighborhood and attracts a certain creative and adventurous kind of personality.
And, hey, it's good for ratings! Not as good as video of a crack house burning, but still...pretty good.
Now, I know that some people think I shouldn't air all this NMTF conflict on my blog, but I think the colorful bare knuckle politics of NoMi is actually part of the fun of this neighborhood and attracts a certain creative and adventurous kind of personality.
And, hey, it's good for ratings! Not as good as video of a crack house burning, but still...pretty good.
5 comments:
It astounds me all of the precious life energy that goes into squabbling amongst your reptilian egos on the North Side. Nothing of real change happens, does it? Does anybody care to shut up, rise up, and soar amongst eagles? Sharing and holding onto negativety just perpetuates it. Your blog is a cesspool.
"Sharing and holding onto negativety just perpetuates it. Your blog is a cesspool."
Ahh, the irony in those two statements.
One does have the choice of coming to the blog site to read, or not coming to the blog site to not read.
To Anon 9:22:
As a northsider who is also exhausted and disappointed by the incessant wrangling for power that prevents anyone from even getting to the point of discussing substantive issues, I have to disagree about the role of this blog in all that.
This blog, for the first time, provides a place for all this to be exposed for what it is, and called out. Too often, this stuff has festered behind the scenes, among a few self-appointed leaders, and the people whose lives are actually affected, and who are wondering "why does nothing ever get done," and who don't receive responses when they try to contact their neighborhod organizations, can see it all first hand, and feel empowered to step up. What has been devastating to public engagement is always feeling like there's all this back room intrigue going on that you have no way of finding out about.
I shared Mike's email with only a few people I thought should be aware of his position in the context of determining our action or response. Without my knowledge, it was forwarded and posted on Johnny's blog. Regardless of my own opinion about individual board members handling of their issues, I would never have shared a communication intended for me, to someone who might publish it. I'm deeply sorry.
Jules, dear, what can I say? The blog is a ravenous beast that feeds on info, and when info comes my way I throw it on the blog. XO
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