I fully agree that UCD has the right to protect their privacy and John Fenton's while they conduct their own internal investigation. The person whose role in all of this really concerns me is Jannie Blackwell's. I know she has her strong supporters on this list, but I can't help feeling that she is being more than a bit disingenuous here (and I'm trying to be careful not to say "hypocritical"). There doesn't seem to be any question that it was at her request that UCD/John Fenton provided help with an "event" in Malcolm X Park. She is an experienced politician who was pretty heavily involved in the Knox campaign -- and she was not aware that the event was a political rally? Or is it that she was unaware that a non-profit organization cannot be involved in a political campaign? I would be far more impressed by her diatribe on John Fenton's behalf if she prefaced it with a few "mea culpa's". If a community forum is suggested to question the internal decisions of UCD -- and I do agree that they've made a TERRIBLE mistake here -- I would like to see some accountability from Coucilwoman Blackwell. Kathleen
________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thu 6/7/2007 6:39 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: UnivCity@list.purple.com Subject: [UC] Liz asks great questions: where do we go from here? In a message dated 6/7/2007 5:46:56 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: My questions include: How do we thank John Fenton? Can his job and reputation be saved? Should we save his job? lose UCD? settle for what we get (and thus deserve)? How do we prevent the further co opting of UC by Politics, Penn and powerful lurkers? Do we support any person or initiative at UCD? ?, ?, ? I totally agree with everything Liz asks here. We don't know the details - only John Fenton knows EVERYTHING - so we can't judge what happened. But, where do we go NEXT? Didn't this problem come about because the Councilwoman asked John Fenton to help out with SOMETHING, and he did? She doesn't dispute that that's what happened - the only question is what did she ask him to help out with. And then, didn't some student tell the Daily News that John did something which was inconsistent with the tax status of his employer and the law? Isn't that how the story came out? From that start, how did anyone jump to the conclusion that "UCD" is to blame? It seems to me that the parties who participated were Jannie Blackwell, John Fenton, the student, the Daily News, and perhaps Tom Knox. Faced with this accusation from the student, wouldn't any responsible employer have no choice but to launch a thorough investigation? And wouldn't they have to keep things private till they got to the bottom of it? Don't those of you calling for immediate answers understand that an employer has to protect his employees' rights? Would any of you want your employers updating the public about what you might or might not have done wrong, before your company had all of the facts? Do you think John Fenton wants that? The daily gossip sheet sent out by his coworkers? Are you considering the liability issues here, while you are demanding that the UCD give updates to the public? Al Krigman has already told the list how delighted he is to be able to use this incident - caused by Councilwoman Blackwell, John Fenton, the student, the Daily News and perhaps Tom Knox - to rally people against the UCD so he can try once again to kill the proposal where landlords would pay a small share of the cost of UCD's work. Well, a good portion of the money the landlords would pay under the Business Improvement District initiative would be to EXPAND THE CLEAN AND SAFE EFFORTS John Fenton has been heading. So list members, help Al out here, and if John has a job, it will be limited - in scope, and perhaps in time, too. How long do you think the institutions will continue to pay the wages of John and his coworkers, if the community wants the services, but bedevils the institutions for funding it? Glenn Moyer, who has made it clear on the list that he doesn't have any respect for any of our community institutions, is also enjoying the current mess. Does anyone on this list doubt that Glenn would like to be rid of Friends of Clark Park, the UCD, Penn, and every other organized entity involved in our neighborhood? Well, if Glenn helps Al rid UC of the UCD, then clearly John Fenton won't have a job, right? And there will be no organization to help out Karen and Wendy when the street person strikes, no one to get the Water Dept. to replace the disappeared manhole covers pronto, no one...... So please, re-read Liz's questions and think about ways to get to a positive outcome appropriate for the current situation - NOT based on the libertarian politics of a frugal landlord, or the exaggerations of an anti-establishment rabble-rouser, NOT based on behind-the-scenes "payback" for old grudges, but based on "what happens next?" It's hard to think of a way to turn this to a win/win situation, but perhaps we can at least avoid having it be lose/lose. Melani Lamond Melani Lamond, Associate Broker Urban & Bye, Realtor 3529 Lancaster Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19104 cell phone 215-356-7266 office phone 215-222-4800, ext. 113 office fax 215-222-1101 ________________________________ See what's free at AOL.com <http://www.aol.com/?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000503> .