EDITOR’S NOTE: Letters will be accepted for the Open Forum for publication in the next available issue after receipt. Letters may be sent to Forest Lake Times, 146 N. Lake St., Suite 125, Forest Lake, or by e-mail to ryan.howard@ecm-inc.com. Letters should not exceed 250 words and must be signed with the writer’s name, address and telephone number. Deadline is noon Monday. The newspaper reserves the right to edit letters and assure that rules of libel and good taste are not violated.
Hall of Shame
The 21-year-old Voices for Racial Justice recently issued its 2013-2014 Human Rights Legislative Report Card showing Bob Dettmer receiving an F grade for the fifth consecutive year and Karin Housley an F grade for her first two years following Vandeveer’s F in 2012 and Ds in the two previous years.
Last summer, the Forest Lake Planning Commission and City Council unanimously and without reasonable notice repealed the affordable housing requirements which a citizen task force worked on for nearly two years despite fierce opposition from former members of city staff. The task force was a settlement requirement of a lawsuit alleging that Forest Lake was hostile to affordable housing.
Virtually the sole responsibility of the Human Rights Commission is to produce “community responses” to human rights violations and educate the city and community on these issues. Not only was the HRC silent about the actions of these officials, I could not find a record of its issuing a single community response in the last nine years.
Together with the new censorship policies of the last two “editors,” the Times has been wholly MIA respecting these actions and inactions. Moreover, when informed of these failures to report and inform, the Times displays First Amendment amnesia and has undertaken no remedial investigation or reporting.
In the unlikely event this escapes Times editorial review, I propose we organize a Forest Lake Hall of Shame commencing with those mentioned. Maybe Forest Lake needs a march over the bridge.
Dale Swanson
Forest Lake