I did expect to see fireworks tonite at the Gunstock Area Commission; I did but not the way that I thought was going to happen. And yes, I thought this would happen (Kiedaisch and Sr. Mgt). More on that later as I have ALL of it on video that I need to process it.
Summary:
- The room was rearranged from its normal U-shaped (where Sr. Mgt was elevated to the same status as the GAC and felt free to interrupt at any time to one that my BudComm had: The Committee was up front and speakers, either from the Public or Department heads that were presenting / defending their budgets had a podium to stand at.
- This was seen as a “slight”
- Politically, it was seized as “the last straw” and one by one, the Sr. Management got up and resigned, each giving 2 weeks notice. Then walked out of the building.
- Commissioner Gary Kiedaish then quit on the spot and, per normal, gave the rest of the GAC the back of his hand.
- The normal contingent of employees were incensed but ALSO let the cat out of the bag when one said that they were highly organized in getting people to the meetings. Some were generally angry, with some (IMHO) were “faux outraged”.
Frankly, Brian Beihl played it well – a grand Saul Alinsky political stunt. Most of the people in the room, when I said that out loud during the Public Comment session, also got angry at me . Political Opportunism. And none of the employees could see it (or a couple, being how an Alinsky organizer works, were in on it):
And THAT’s when Jon Decker, a wet-behind-the-ears reporter who has been submitting biased reporting for quite some time, lost it Past being angry – not a good look there, young man. If you want to be a political activist, there are plenty of Lefty non-profits that might take you in.
Sidenote: or not. The way you lost your composure, almost to the point of being out of control as you kept STALKING up and down at the front of the public seating, was almost comical to the max. It’s clear that this young man (20-22?) has adopted the same Narrative News Style that roiled the NYT a couple of months ago when the junior news staff, all Woked up, starting forcing out credentials, award-winning “oldsters” for not toeing their line. Didn’t help that Sr. Management caved into them.
He also doesn’t listen very well, either.
Hey Jon! When a reporter is yelling at me during a public meeting (at least Kitch did it in a parking lot), and also accusing a Commissioner of something that you can’t prove, you’ve become the story instead of reporting on one. And sufficiently angry enough at me because I challenged him such that I thought he was going to take a swing at me. Yes, I was already wargaming that scenario as I stood there. Have a camera trained on him as he was doing his rant didn’t faze him in the least.
HIS Sr. Management will be SO proud of him for proving, in just a couple of hours, what I’ve been saying about the Sun for years.
After the meeting, I went over to the Laconia Daily Sun to file an Ethics Complaint against him with the management hoping that someone might still be there (no such luck). So, I’ll be back in the morning to do so.
Or, perhaps he’ll quit as well? Video is coming.
To Be continued at several levels.
UPDATE: Oh, I just couldn’t help myself. Jon Decker was yakking it up with the employee outside while I was schlepping equipment out to my truck. One of them yelled out that I had a crappy blogsite. So that Decker could hear it, I smilingly said “Perhaps but we have a FAR larger online reach than the Laconia Daily Sun” and went on my way.
