by: Diane Benjamin
The constituent involved in the email exchange with Tari Renner just sent me the entire email. He did leave off some information at the top-but that information had nothing to do with the part I posted.
Here’s the facts: David Sage emailed Tari Renner and asked if the email on my post was real. Tari told him I had changed it. I hope David Sage now knows he was lied to.
Here’s the post with a link to the original post containing the Renner email. http://blnnews.com/2014/05/07/truth-tari/
Here’s is the entire email:
_________________________
Dear Kevin,
I believe that there are a number of misunderstanding in your email.
First of all, I never indicated that I thought that the Tea Party was composed of “wackos” – quite the contrary.
I trusted Diane enough to confide in her about things and that was clearly not warranted. I said I would never make that mistake again – and I won’t.
She has a right to write whatever she wants but I don’t have to trust her judgment or actions. Further, her arguments make no logical sense (hence “I don’t know what planet she’s on”) Finally on the email, this was a personal communication to someone and not a public conversation. Diane got ahold of it and made it public (as she did with many private emails I sent to her)! I would NEVER make a private email public just to make a political point. I believe that’s a violation of trust!
As far as the substance, Scott Oglesby is a friend of mine and supported me in each of my campaigns. The decision to appeal was made the by previous council and mayor.
I pushed to reconsider that decision but I had to be careful not to push too hard so that it didn’t appear that I was just trying to help a friend/supporter.
Last summer, I did redistribute to the entire council the arbitrator’s report and asked everyone to re-read it and
reconsider. That still didn’t move the council.
As a matter of common practice in American government at all levels, personnel decisions (unless they involve
high profile department heads and scandal or something) are not discussed in public (for all kinds of reasons –
you open yourself up to legal challenges suits etc., you may have difficulty hiring qualified people if they think
they may be trashed in public, etc.). Any legal counsel I’ve ever received as an elected official or when I
worked for the International City/County Management Association back in the last 1980s made that point crystal
clear.
I totally agree that this appeal was an irresponsible waste of money. But, the council majority at the time
buckled to public pressure and pursed the appeal. My attempt to persuade them otherwise was unsuccessful. (Just FYI, it may be obvious to you that Scott did nothing wrong – and I agree – but the overwhelming public outcry at the time was in the opposite direction and the council responded – inaccurately I believe.)
Consequently, I don’t agree with you that I don’t walk the walk on transparency. Everything I’ve done as mayor
is exactly what I said I’d do during the campaign and I make everything public that I can – sometimes to a fault!
I’ve been criticized over and over again by many in City Hall and on the Council because I make everything public
and am crystal clear about everything and my motivations.
If you change your mind, I am always willing to meet with you – or anyone. My door is always open!
Best,
Tari Renner
Thanks for clearing that up and there was also the original email that started my conversation with Mayor Renner that I did not post as it was not relevant:
—–Kevin Gerrard wrote: —–
To: “[email protected]”
From: Kevin Gerrard
Date: 11/21/2013 12:26PM
Subject: Fw: [New post] Mayor Transparency
Mayor Renner,
Obviously your recent email response to my recent complaint regarding the nasty and inflammatory conduct of Alderman Fazzini and his trashing of Diane Benjamin along with the slanderous email sent by Mark Peterson to Ald. Fazzini that was show to others to damage Diane’s reputation was complete garbage.
As I previously explained to you, I am not a member of the Tea Party, and I do not believe they are “wackos’ like many of you do on City Council. I do however think there are people with views in both parties, but I pretty much follow the basic tenants of the Tea Party but there are some issues I do not agree with wholeheartedly. I read the BLM News, and enjoy the majority of Diane’s articles. However, I did not agree with the BLM articles or the attack on Jamie Mathy, and I did not agree with his pubic humiliation before the City Council and public before he was sworn in as an Alderman last year when he was challenged on a misdemeanor that had occurred years before that would not have precluded him from holding office. I felt that the attack was mean spirited and unnecessary, and it cost Kevin Lower my vote as Ward 1 Alderman even though I supported him and contributed to his campaign.
In your email to me, you agreed with me that politicians should have “thick skin”, and your direct statement to me was “I do, of course, agree with you that you’ve got to be thick skinned or you don’t run for public office!” Based upon your email below where you “trash” Diane for taking the City to task over the ongoing litigation of former police officer Scott Oglesby. As a blogger, she has a right to write that article, and it would seem to me that you would be smart enough to guard your words and actions more closely. Furthermore, your ran for office on “open transparency” and if a case shouts for open transparency, it’s this one because it stinks to high heaven and they city of Bloomington has wasted considerable tax dollars prosecuting and defending a case that should of never been brought forth in the first place.
The public deserves an up and down vote on whether or not to continue this battle fighting this case in court as it’s obvious to a reasonable person that the officer did nothing wrong. I have worked in law enforcement, and I have managed thousands of employees in the private security services industry over a 30 year period. I have held jobs from a field supervisory level to a regional executive position for a company generating over 4 Billion dollars a year of revenue, and I have had to encounter many situations where employees have had to restrain people whether they be minors, medical or psychiatric patients, thief’s, etc., and from what I have read in the media, Officer Oglesby reacted properly. Additionally, you politicians might not understand, but any one who has worked in law enforcement would understand, how Officer Oglesby would assume that the Resources Officer would of written an incident report because the Resources Officer was assigned to that school Officer Oglesby was not.
You invited me to meet with you discuss the Fazzini complaint I brought forth. As of now, I have no desire to do that. You have demonstrated that your support for “transparency” was nothing more than lip service. Simply said, You don’t walk your own talk.
You don’t need to prove anything to me personally Mayor. You need to man up and do the right thing.
Kevin Gerrard
Very well said Kevin! 😛
Renner says”,,,(I) make everything public and am crystal clear about everything and my motivations.” He said, crystal clear,,,I am LMFAO!!!