Monday, March 16, 2015
Janesville School Board Member's Witch Hunt A Lesson For Citizen Watchdogs
More than five weeks have passed since School Board member Bill Sodemann doubled-down with a retaliatory second FOIA request on the Rock County office emails of employee Carla Q, and so far there have been no headlines or major articles posted in the Janesville Gazette about his findings.
Carla Q, as you might recall, became a target of Sodemann's only after it was discovered her school board petition signatures and candidacy papers were deemed valid and in proper order. You read that right.
Of course we wouldn't think Sodemann filed his FOIA requests simply because he thought she was associated with a group like ...ohhh, let's pretend and say, Catholic Charities, the Girl Scouts of America, United Way, St. Jude or World Vision. Nahh. It's much worse than that. He figured she must be associated with one of those democrat parties or employee unions and he'll find all their dirty laundry tucked away inside her county paid email box.
After five weeks, had Sodemann or the Gazette found the dirt they were looking for, I'd think it would have been published by now with blazing headlines and flow charts showing how all the partisan conspirators have conspired to steal a Janesville school board seat.
Instead, they have egg on their faces. Only their victims remain.
But, IF the Gazette lets Sodemann's wrongheaded witch hunt die on the vine with no respite for the victims, it will still serve a desirable purpose for them.
It will stand as a lesson to any of you unionistas or "citizens" who think about snooping around Janesville where you don't belong. Let's just say you won't see procedural cooperation according to state and local ordinances. Instead, we will obstruct where we can, publish what we feel like publishing, and retaliate without just cause in ways that will make your life miserable.
We've shown you what you should always expect. And Oh, thanks for visiting!!
RELATED:
RNR - Janesville School District Insiders Retaliate Against Whistleblower, Scandal Spreads
2 comments:
From the Gazette's March 15 edition, in a story about Sunshine Week on Page 2A:
"In January and February, Janesville School Board member Bill Sodemann filed two open records requests looking for information about school board candidate Carla Quirk, who is a Rock County government employee. The Gazette decided to mirror his requests to receive whatever information he was getting.
The district complied with the Gazette’s requests, but Gazette staff found nothing significant. Sodemann also said that he found no abuse of government by Quirk.
The Gazette reported about Sodemann’s requests and the people surprised to be listed as a part of his request."
It was those passages from the article (Sunday, March 15, Page 2A), what prompted me to write this blog posting. Considering the large amount of ink and prominent placement the Gazette gave to Sodemann's FOIA requests and the overall retaliatory actions from some of the players, I feel Sodemann (and the Gazette to some extent) owe the Janesville public a far more visible explanation than a few sentences at the end of an article about Sunshine Week.
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