It’s a Good Time for Accuracy, not Fear-Mongering and Spin

The breakdown of Eureka Springs government caused by Mayor Dani Wilson’s failure to approve Pat Matsukis’ perfectly legal and proper election to City Council was evident last Monday night at the regular Council meeting. You wouldn’t know it from the latest media spin and scapegoating, though.

Hamstrung by what she called lack of a quorum, the Mayor declared the meeting over because, she said, there weren’t the votes to pass items on the agenda. The increasingly sheep-like Council agreed, and called an end to the meeting.

The problem? There weren’t enough votes to pass anything the Mayor might have wanted, but there was a quorum.

There were three alders and the Mayor, who can be counted under a recent revision of state coded to make up a quorum.

The problem for the Mayor was that Ald. Eric Scheunemann continued not to vote because of his conviction that doing so would be perpetrating malfeasance. Scheunemann has consistently maintained his position with regard to votes on substantive issues because of what he understands to be the illegality of the Council meeting without the properly-elected Matsukis. But it doesn’t much matter whether one agrees with Scheunemann or not.

The fact is there was a quorum. Period. Four members seated. Four out of six. That’s a quorum. But you wouldn’t know it from the latest spin put on by the street paper here in Eureka.

Fear-Mongering Starts Up

The Mayor and her misinformants turned the deadlock she created into fearmongering and scapegoating others. It is not only tiresome. It is unconscionable to let the Mayor continue with her smoke and mirrors. We in the media have an obligation to counter her at every step.

That includes Citizen reporter Don Lee, who has become increasingly inaccurate and bullying of Council as he has become more partisan in his hard news reporting.

Lee bullies with lawsuits he says are threatening, but he doesn’t say who, what, why or when. He just shakes the mumbo-jumbo at us. (We previously reported on the misinformation on state statutes regarding a “default.” It may or may not have been what Lee was referring to.)

Then Lee shimmies and shakes us about with the special election needed to pass a referendum to re-apportion a one-cent sales and use tax to cover the bond, ever-so-unsubtly suggesting Council cannot be trusted to address the issue.

And he goes on, this Lee, who damns by sly innuendo, indirect suggestion, and incomplete thought that leads us just right up to the edge of condemnation of Council.

The Fact of the Matter

The fact of the matter is that Council will meet in time to set up a referendum vote.

If he had checked with members of Council, Lee would have discovered that there are the votes.

If he had checked with more than the Mayor or one of her misinformants, Lee would also have discovered the City is not at the present time in any danger of being hauled into court. No one with any sense in the administration is speaking any more of the threat of a lawsuit. Even the Finance Director has stopped this threat, saying only that the bonding company might sock us with higher rates.

Please pass the word. The city is not in danger of being hauled into court. The city is not going to miss referendum time. The Council looks out for the city even as the Mayor’s misinformants continue to spin and scapegoat.

The print media needs to quit fear-mongering. It needs to get us accurate information– with a point of view if that is their preference, but above all with accuracy.

Speaking Truth to Spin? You’re troublesome, arntcha?