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Saturday, December 4, 2010

Questions for Councilor Burney on the WBLS matter


I am reminded of a remark about the famous actress.

Could we use a little more transparency from Councilor Burney on his role in the WBLS inquiry?

I certainly think so.

Reading his little tiff (see here) over Councilor Mapp's demand (see here) for an apology from the Courier's editors to former corporation counsel Jackie Drakeford over their treatment of her in an editorial on the WBLS inquiry (see here), some questions for Councilor Burney come to mind --

  • Is it true that when hiring someone was discussed, you opposed hiring of an out-of-town attorney to handle the matter?

  • Is it true that it was YOU WHO SUGGESTED Ms. Drakeford in the first place?

  • And if it's true that you made the suggestion, did it not occur to you that surely someone would bring up her association with your former mentor, the current Council president's father -- including publicly available information about campaign contributions?

  • How thoughtful was it of you to expose Ms. Drakeford (who is blameless in all of this) and the Council to embarrassment over this matter, when a better solution had been proposed in the first place?
Thanks to your 'leadership' on this matter, Plainfield residents now must look further down the road for a resolution of the questions surrounding the $20,000-plus expenditures Mayor Robinson-Briggs authorized to WBLS.

And then you fail to mention yourself as having any culpability in this mess when you suggest 'maybe it is the Council and [Mapp] who should apologize and not the Courier News'.

Your behavior in this matter puts me in mind of Oscar Levant's remark about the actress Doris Day: 'I knew her before she was a virgin'.



-- Dan Damon [follow]

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gee Dan. . . . .there you go again. . . . .the election's over. . . . . did you forget you WON.

jim spear

Anonymous said...

Your a good soldier Dan. You defend your Commander even when he blunders.

Unfortunately you have taken a shortcoming that the New Dems overlooked, the Courier brought to light and the Council President fixed (as only she can do with her professionalism and transparency) and you turned it on your enemies as if it was his fault.

Come on Dan. Take ownership. Annie did. But Mapp blames, and you defend it.

New Dems acting like old Dems. Where is the unsubscribe button?

Anonymous said...

Nobody said Ms. Drakeford did anything wrong, just that she was not the best choice given her past opposition to the mayor. It would be like hiring Hilary Clinton to investigate Ken Starr - too much history. If we're going to spend $6,000 to find out what happened to our $20,000 let's not hire someone whose even handedness is going to be questioned before she even starts.
As for Rashid - he's the one who started the call for an investigation. You cold give him some credit - or maybe you'd like to talk about his fence some more.

Anonymous said...

Dan, Burney's disingenuousness continues. Yes, he was the one who first suggested Drakeford, now he is trying to blame others for poor decision making. So glad he will be gone soon.

Anonymous said...

Gosh, and I knew Dan before he was anybody's shill! (But that was a long, long time ago...and in another lifetime, I guess.)