The Gazette reporter covering the League of Women Voters Forum held for the Janesville city council candidates at the Hedberg Library Wednesday evening seemed to have missed nearly a third of the debate in the story posted by the paper in Thursdays edition. The article titled Council Hopefuls Question Pay Raise left out everything pertaining to TIF districts discussed by the candidates which consumed nearly 20 minutes of the 60 minute session.
What I find interesting is that both Forward Janesville’s Web survey and the League of Women Voters find questioning the candidates about TIF’s to be very important while the candidates themselves offered simple and agreeable answers in near conformity. Except for Andrea Briarmoon, none of them made an effort to stand out and offer anything new or different.
The Gazette went as far as to title and sub-title the candidates forum article as a debate about the city manager’s salary and dedicated almost half of their story coverage to talk over Sheiffer's pay raise when in reality a couple candidates merely agreed they would have probably opposed it. Again, all except one, Briarmoon, seemed very satisfied with the decisions made by the current council, governmental process, taxes, TIFs, direction of growth, sense of community, and nearly everything else regarding the state of the city. I could be wrong, but when there are eight candidates to fill four chairs, most voters would be under the impression that change is in order. Sorry to disappoint you folks.
But the real story here is the absence of the TIF district discussion in the Gazette, obviously a deliberate attempt by the newspaper to focus attention away from the circumstances surrounding how and why they (Gazette) or the location on Wuthering Hills Drive were able to qualify for this economic welfare tool. Indeed it deserves much more attention than it's been getting.
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