WPCNR MR. & MRS. & MS. WHITE PLAINS VOICE. September 18, 2005: WPCNR recently pointed out that Mayoral Candidate Dennis Power criticised the Mayor for not signing a Clean Air/Clean Planet document supporting state efforts against warm gases. The reader differs thusly:

Wait or Lead?

John,

Recently both you and the Mayor dismissed Dennis Power’s release saying that the Mayor had not signed a letter from the Mayors and chief elected officials of over 50 Northeast cities and towns in support of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) with the excuse that no one from Clean Air-Cool Planet had ever contacted the city about “this noble cause”.  Do you really think that we should just wait for these initiatives to come to use, or should we actively seek them out?  Especially since RGGI was the direct result of an April 2003 initiative by New York Governor George E. Pataki.

This is similar current belief that residents are responsible for finding out about critical meetings instead of it being the city’s responsibility to actively advertise them, or the city waiting for developers to bring their visions to the city, instead of the city actively promoting one of its own -- Wait and they will come.

Don Hughes

The CitizeNetReporter replies: I do not disagree. The point of Mr. Power's release implied the Mayor refused to sign it, and since the Mayor never received the letter, and is in the process of being contacted to sign it by the organization, the news release gave a false impression.

          This is not good campaign practice. Making charges have to be based in fact as far as you can determine. Reporters are vilified for not checking things out all the time. However, it is very difficult checking things out with government since the real facts are suppressed until government is embarrassed into revealing them and absolutely have to reveal them.