Why Did the Republican-Controlled County Board Hand Over Publication of Its Business to a Sivarajah Ally/Crony at His Financial Gain?

I've submitted the following Letter to the Editor to the ABC Newspapers for publication this month....

To the Editor:

 

Impropriety.  Conflict of interest.  The County Board’s decision to move publication of its business from the Anoka Union Herald to the Anoka County Record has drawn protest from the community because it is simply wrong, and steps over a line that is rarely crossed in this area.

 

Publication of the County’s business records is not a piece of partisan business.  It’s done to keep the community informed, to keep its vendors and potential vendors informed, and to establish, irony intended, a record of its business. 

 

Moving publication of its business to a partisan Republican-controlled ‘rag’ that is virtually unavailable in print to the community, that does not indicate its availability by subscription, or even appears in stores in every city of this large County, is a testament to both the lack of transparency and the intentional control of information this current Board chooses to practice in 2015.

 

Shame on the Board members who haven’t called out Board Chair Rhonda Sivarajah’s obvious conflict of interest in voting for this change. What conflict of interest? Anoka County Record’s publisher, John Kysylyczyn is listed on the Sivarajah website as its administrative and technical contact. Kysylyczyn gets a monetary gain by publishing the County’s business in his so-called newspaper. The Chair of the Board should have recused herself from voting on this issue.

 

Yes, as a DFL party leader in this community, I have my own partisan interest in opposing the use of a Tea Party-influenced publication receiving this contract from the Board.  But not because I’m a Democrat, but because this leaves citizens like me, who live somewhere in the County where this is not available to us, without access.  And that is wrong.  It would be hubris to expect this Board to reconsider its intemperate action, but it is right and proper for recent letter writers like Janet Entzel, Dee Ann Christensen, Beth Dhennin and now myself, to expect more of its Board members and to look for alternatives to address this political pay-off and conflict of the public’s best interest.

 

Wes Volkenant

Andover

SD 35 DFL Chair

Thank you to my proofreaders for this one, as I stride to have my facts and understandings correct within the context of the innuendo that I have put forth.

Our northern suburbs friend at "Developers are Crabgrass" covered this change himself, in late-January...  http://zaetsch.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-bad-joke-from-band-of-jokers-set-on.html.  This will provide you a link to the original story from the Union Herald about the Board's action.  I am disappointed that newly-elected Commissioner Gamache, who I publicly supported in this Blog, voted with the majority.  I hope that if an opportunity to reconsider arises, that he'll do that with a vote against the Record.

I've also appreciated the Letters to the Editor throughout February from the afore-mentioned women noted in my last paragraph.  Thank you Janet, Dee Ann and Beth for holding their feet to this fire of protest.

And, it was interesting to see myself addressed again in a 2/28/15 letter from Christian extremist Barb Anderson of Champlin.  Barb was addressing a letter I wrote last August (yep, SIX months ago)to complain that Republicans don't have a lock on morality in the United  States.  Well, shockingly, Barb thinks Republicans better represent her literalist view of the Bible, which makes them better Christians than us DFLers, apparently.  As I said, shocking, isn't it?