EDITORIAL for January 14-16, 2012
I’m Cave MANager Paul Lotsof. If you’ve been reading
Benson’s newspaper over the past month you know that City Councilman David
Lambert is Benson’s public enemy number one.
You also know that during the December twelfth city council
meeting Lambert leveled one attack after the other at Chamber of Commerce
Administrator Marc Washington and you know that Washington suffered such
humiliation that he decided to quit
his job with the Chamber and even file a lawsuit against the city because
Lambert slandered him something awful.
You also know from reading the newspaper that Lambert hammered away at
Washington for a full forty minutes and you know that because of Lambert Benson
may even lose its Chamber of Commerce. And
last but not least you know that if Lambert doesn’t resign he will be the
target of a recall because of what he did on December twelfth.
All of that is very interesting but there is a major
problem: Much of it is crap.
I know because not only did I attend the December twelfth meeting but I
recorded it and have listened to my recording twice just to make sure I have it
right. In actuality, Lambert
asked Washington about three or four questions and at no time in the meeting did
Lambert accuse Washington of any wrongdoing.
Let’s first
look at the background information. The
Benson City Government first enacted a bed tax in 1989 and the ordinance
specified that the money raised by the bed tax would go to the Chamber of
Commerce for the purpose of promoting tourism.
Three years later, the city council got annoyed with the leadership of
the chamber and repealed the 1989 ordinance and passed a new one that allowed
the city council to spend the bed tax receipts any way it wanted to.
.
Fast forwarding to 2011, the council budgeted cash to be
given to the chamber and as of December twelfth there was about $19,500 left of
the budgeted cash. Washington
had sent a letter to the council which said in no uncertain terms that if
approved, the money would be used to pay his salary.
Washington appeared before the council probably thinking that all he had
to do was ask for the $19,500 and the council would quickly approve the outlay.
But Washington got a surprise at the council meeting when Lambert
suggested that the city subsidize the chamber’s functions but not pay cash
directly to the chamber itself. It
was clear that Lambert didn’t think that it was proper for the city to give
money to the chamber to pay salaries; Rather,
city cash should go only for special
events like funding Butterfield Stage Days, the bluegrass festival and the
Christmas festival. Lambert didn’t
explain why he objected to having city funds used to pay Washington and nobody
asked him. An analogous
situation would be if someone made a big contribution to the school and
specified that not a penny of the contribution could go to pay the school’s
principal. What’s wrong with
paying the principal? Maybe it’s
because principals don’t teach the kids. Who
knows?
Be that
as it may, Washington got bent out of shape and said that he was deeply offended
by what he was hearing and he chose to take it all as a personal attack.
Washington has every right to be offended if he wants to.
If he wants to he can be offended that the sun rises in east.
As the discussion continued, Lambert made a motion to give
nothing to the chamber but only Councilman Chris Moncada was willing to back
that motion so it died. Toward
the end of the discussion, Councilman Nick Maldonado came up with a complicated
plan to give the chamber the cash with conditions and restrictions and
Maldonado’s proposal was passed.
Later the newspaper reported Washington’s threat of a lawsuit and Mayor
King’s accusation that Lambert had “blindsided” Washington.
And at last Monday’s council meeting it was reported that King had sent
Washington a letter of apology. But
an apology for what?
What terrible thing did Lambert do?
In my opinion the only thing that Lambert did that was questionable was
his failure to explain why he opposes having the city subsidize the chamber’s
payroll. But anyone listening
to the council meeting knows that Lambert committed no atrocity.
I can’t overemphasize the fact that nobody attacked
Washington at the December 12 meeting and I also can’t overemphasize the fact
that Lambert is only one member of the city council.
Incidentally,
a late breaking development is that on Tuesday evening the council is being
asked to go to the opposite extreme to what Lambert wanted and give the chamber
70% of the bed tax revenues for the next six years with no strings attached.
If the council is foolish enough to approve that, it will be tying its
own hands and lose control of public funds.
That’s irresponsible to the taxpayers and it also rewards people who
make threats and baseless accusations.
I think that
some questions need to be asked of the chamber leadership:
For one thing, why do their festivals lose money like crazy to the point
where they require public funds to make them happen?
Why don’t the businesses who benefit from the festivals pay their own
way? Washington said that the
Christmas festival attracted 72 vendors. How
much did they pay and why didn’t they pay enough to make the festival
profitable? If this radio station
put on a festival and it lost money and I tried to hit up the city for the
shortfall, I’d be told to go jump in the lake.
Why is the chamber different? And
why can’t the chamber pay its administrator with other revenues such as
membership dues?
In summation, let me say that I’m no big fan of
Councilman Lambert but I think that those who are after his scalp are badly
misinformed, mostly by a newspaper which has given a lot of credibility to
baseless accusations. The
public needs to understand that just because something is printed in black and
white that doesn’t make it gospel.
I’m CAVE MANager Paul Lotsof and the opinions you’ve
heard are mine and not necessarily anyone else’s.
If you’d like a copy of this editorial or you’d like to express your
opinions go to the CAVE web site at CAVE-FM.com.
That’s CAVEFM.com.