[Vision2020] Response to Kimmell: Part I,
DiscriminatoryHiring/Contracting Practices
Art Deco aka W. Fox
deco at moscow.com
Mon Sep 20 13:56:31 PDT 2004
Re: [Vision2020] Response to Kimmell: Part I, DiscriminaSean,
I have written extensively on this forum and others about tolerance.
I encourage everyone with any view what-so-ever to express and to argue for that
view. As far as ideas go, my tolerance ends there.
All ideas are subject to critical evaluation and comment. That is the reason
freedom of expression is the cornerstone of an open, democratic society.
I doubt that you wish me to re-express my critique of the Christ Church Cult's
ideas at this point. I call them a cult because they are. Various V 2020
posters have posted various academic, observation-based, scholarly based tests
of cult activity and pointed out how the CCC meets most of those criteria. You
can find this out for yourself if you can Google.
I make no apology for being critical of a sexist, homophobic, arrogantly
dishonest, anti-secular, anti-public education, manipulative, hypocritical, tax
avoiding cult. If you find this idea demeaning, so be it.
Wayne
Art Deco (Wayne Fox)
deco at moscow.com
----- Original Message -----
From: sean
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 1:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Response to Kimmell: Part I,
DiscriminatoryHiring/Contracting Practices
Interesting information. Worth knowing more about.
I wonder, however, why you, Wayne, feel the need to demean others' religion
in the process of raising concerns about unethical practices. Is it because you
are similarly guilty of discrimination?
As it is you confuse the issues surrounding the alleged practices by
potentially raising outrage at not only Kimmell but yourself. Somehow I doubt
you would consider similar venomous language to be acceptable by others in the
community if it were leveled at groups you support. Yet it seems being a
liberal makes it OK to insult others. Or is it just that those liberals who
lack self-control give a bad name to the rest?
If one bad apple doesn't spoil the rest, it certainly may make the others be
avoidedSdespite their good character. I guess that goes for apples and
organizations (both liberal and conservative).
s
Preface
On August 27, 2004, a pseudo-folksy column by Paul Kimmell appeared in the
Daily News [appended below]. This column was an apparent attempt to respond to
some of the many criticisms made of Kimmell's actions in his dual role as Moscow
Chamber of Commerce Executive Director and Latah County Commissioner. Because
Kimmell's column did not address certain important issues and dishonestly
addressed others, a multi-part response is in the works to set the record
straight.
This first part deals with discriminatory hiring/contracting practices - the
favoring of Christ Church Cult members/businesses in hiring and contracting
practices by the chamber and county - an issue that Kimmell did not choose to
address in his Pollyanna column.
Discriminatory Hiring/Contracting Practices
As Executive Director of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce, Kimmell hired at
least five fellow Christ Church Culties as employees. Assessing generously in
his favor the odds of fairly hiring even one cultie from all the possible
applicants in the area at 1 in 50 (with replacement), the odds of fairly hiring
five culties are about 1 in 315,000,000!
One of the culties hired was Kimmell's current wife, Connie. Can you also
say NEPOTISM? [More about the Kimmell/Kimmel connection at the chamber will be
forthcoming in the posts on chamber financials.]
A few more of the allegations that a considerable amount of chamber money
was spent in a discriminatory manner for part-time work and contracted services
are as follows:
§ Hiring eight cultie children directly without any attempt to find
other children to do a special project.
§ A disproportionate amount of catering done by Zume, a cult member
based business housed in the NSA tenement. [Some chamber members are also not
enamored by the quality of the alleged comestibles served.]
§ A disproportionate number of entertainments at chamber functions
provided by Eric Engerbretson, a cultie and cultie apologist. [According to
some chamber members, a little of Eric goes a long way.]
§ The contracting of the design, programming, and maintenance of the
chamber website to inexperienced, inept amateurs from NSA for over $22,000.
As county commissioner, Kimmell recently used his influence to help install
a cultie in a clerical position in the Latah County Courthouse.
Effects of Discriminatory Hiring/Contracting Practices
Discrimination based on religious preference/practice is contrary to state
and federal law. This is especially true of public institutions and those
organizations like the chamber that thrive in part because of public tax monies
received.
There are many secondary effects that can arise from this discriminatory
misuse of public money:
Public agencies who have contributed to the chamber either through dues or
grants can demand that those past contributions be returned for the entire
period that the discrimination has occurred. These agencies can use court
action to force the return of such monies, if necessary.
Further, the public agencies themselves can be forced to return funds which
were given to them under laws and contracts prohibiting discriminatory practices
by vendors and/or other service organizations to that public agency.
Public agencies giving money to organizations practicing discrimination
(such as the chamber has for the last three or four years) face a loss of
community goodwill. Just losing a little goodwill can cause a public agency to
lose a levy request or lose support for a budget increase.
I have little doubt that unless the chamber apologizes for, stops the
discriminatory practices, and removes the individual (Kimmell) responsible for
them, that the public agencies supporting this past discrimination with public
funds will themselves be the object of some very unpleasant community wrath,
protest, and action.
As for the pathetic chamber website, chamber members have been willfully and
arrogantly ripped off. Besides its marginal graphical design and overall
structural inadequacies, important parts of the website are dysfunctional.
There is no search mechanism to find member businesses [Google provides such
programming free]. You can't even use the web browser edit function to find a
business since the business names, etc. occur in graphic files! Hence, even if
you go through the slow process of going page by page to find a member business,
you can't copy the individual business information from the graphic page.
Further, it does not appear that simple maintenance procedures that chamber
employees could use have been created; therefore the chamber is dependent on the
NSA students to maintain the website. Needless to say, the information on the
chamber website is out of date.
A professional could have created for the chamber a graphically and
functionally well designed website. Such a design would have provided chamber
members with the search ability and visibility for their businesses and
organizations they have a right to expect. The website building and cost from a
professional? Probably under $5,000!
Instead, under Kimmell's religious discriminatory contracting practices,
inexperienced, inept students from cult business NSA have been paid over $22,000
and the product is marginal at best. This is con-artistry at its small town
worst!
Kimmell's discriminatory practices also show that in addition to getting
"oversight" from Christ Church Cult Master Douglas Wilson as a Latah County
Commissioner, Kimmell's obeying orders from the Cult Master is aiding the Cult
Master's A-Religious-Kingdom-for-Myself ambitions using our tax money.
[Question: Do the culties knowingly hired/contracted through these
discriminatory practices, a process of community theft, hypocritically continue
to call themselves "Christians" or have they in their heart of hearts (but not
publicly) given up such a pretense?]
Obviously, discrimination based on religious preference/practice is in
itself grossly unfair. It steals from everyone in the community both
opportunity and possible income. Therefore, this kind of discrimination is
little more than common theft and its perpetrator, Paul Kimmell, is little more
than a common thief. These discriminatory practices in the name of the chamber
make that organization look like a bunch of common thieves also.
Previous posters have described Kimmell and other some chamber board members
as very "community minded" and "nice." Kimmell may be "charming," but to
describe him and his co-conspirators using the words "nice" and "community
minded" when they are, in effect, common thieves using tax money to finance
their hateful discriminatory practices is a gross misuse of the English
language.
Silence of the Chamber Board
Although they have been asked several times and by several different persons
to comment on the above described discriminatory practices, members of the board
have not yet made any public comment on this issue. [At least one member,
however, has said, "It is none of the public's business."]
Although the chamber board has been silent on this issue, one influential
past president of the chamber has commented. Jon Kimberling in a series of
exchanges with myself, made these remarks, perhaps speaking for the present
chamber:
"Wayne - as past president of the Chamber and someone who spent a year on
City Council working with Paul, I can tell you he is a man of great integrity.
The Chamber board questioned him about his hiring's. It is my belief that he
hired the best people for the job - some happened to be associated with the
church. I don't know about you but I have a tendency to associate myself with
people who have similar values. Is that so wrong? ..."
"Whatever the math, there is still every possibility that the Chamber went
through a thorough process in each hiring and that the best candidate was
chosen.
When I said: "I have a tendency to associate myself with people who have
similar values," Is that so wrong? I should have continued and explained that I
believe Paul networked with local business people, church members and anyone
else he knows to advertise the jobs. It was certainly no secret at the Chamber
and we were all encouraged to get the word out. I don't deny the appearance of
favoritism..."
The sentence comparing Jon Kimberling's practices to Paul Kimmell's
practices: "I have a tendency to associate myself with people who have similar
values. Is that so wrong?" perhaps explains in part why the chamber has ignored
not only state and federal law but the rights and reasonable expectations of
everyone in the community in their hiring/contracting practices.
Solution
There is a simple solution that any prudent business person would pursue
when faced with the problems described above.
1. Apologize to the community which provides its funding for
past missteps, and as far as legally and fairly possible, correct them.
2. Design, write, and scrupulously follow procedures which
provide for advertising, screening, and hiring/contracting such that all of the
qualified candidates in our community have an equal chance of being considered
and hired for any chamber position or contracted service.
3. Immediately dismiss Paul Kimmell as executive director.
His open, arrogant violation of state and federal law and his cause of the
community loss of respect for and confidence in the chamber by discriminatory
practices - stealing opportunity and income from all of us - and forcing his
religion down our throats and using our tax money in the process, are grounds,
in and of themselves, for instant dismissal.
If the chamber board refuses with the stubbornness and community
insensitivity they have so far exhibited to do these three simple steps, they
will certainly be surprised at the outrage and action that will pour forth from
insulted and concerned members of the community.
/s/ Wayne A. Fox
Wayne A. Fox
1009 Karen Lane
P.O. Box 9421
Moscow, ID 83843
(208) 882-7975
waf at moscow.com
______________________________
From The Daily News
______________________________
COLUMN: Trying to live peaceable lives in Moscow
Paul J. Kimmell
As a child, I would wander through Philadelphia staring at the Liberty Bell
and through Independence Hall not knowing what that "experiment in liberty" was
all about or that the men who signed the Declaration of Independence had risked
their lives, fortunes, honor, and reputations for a very risky proposition.
During my years of public service, I've come to realize the great amount of
scrutiny that one in such a position is under. Much has been written of my dual
roles of late, both as a Latah County commissioner and as executive director of
the Moscow Chamber of Commerce.
Unlike some in the media and in the community, I am accountable to all of
you in one form or another. For the record, I wish to respond to some of these
recent attacks on my character and the organizations I work for.
First of all, I want to assure those of you involved in the chamber of
commerce our financial situation is not grim but in fact fairly healthy. In the
3 1/2 years I have been with the organization, our bottom line has improved
steadily. While some of our numbers have been taken out of context, it is
difficult to explain them without looking at them as a whole and in one setting,
which is what our Executive/Finance Committee does every month. They have
realized areas that needed to be fine-tuned, and have provided great direction
to our outside bookkeeper, making sure each account is properly categorized.
During this process, some items have needed to be moved from the Chamber
Foundation to the Chamber - again, per the Executive/Finance Committee. That is
what some of these numbers that have been discussed reflect. This committee is
well aware of the Foundation's and the Chamber's status - none of these
decisions have been made without their direction, contrary to what some have
implied. This same volunteer-based committee and Chamber Board continue to
provide this important oversight while making suggestions as to how we provide
our membership and the community with quality services. This is a group of
small-business owners dedicated to improving and protecting Moscow's quality of
life and business.
I am also very proud of our chamber staff and the tremendous amount of work
they produce on behalf of Moscow and its businesses. Like many of you, they're
overworked and underpaid, but I appreciate how well they represent this
community when the phone rings or a visitor stops in for travel information.
As the community's "front door," the chamber is often the first impression
someone has of Moscow. We take this responsibility seriously and we make sure it
is a warm and inviting one. We operate on a fairly small budget and we rely on
the great generosity of our business community to help us provide these
services.
Can we do better? Absolutely.
I'm often reminded just how fortunate we are to live in a place where crime
is low, the air is clean and the culture is abundant.
I am also very aware of the importance in protecting these assets, our farms
and farmlands, our forests and lumber mills, our water and other resources, our
businesses and institutions and, most importantly, our people and our
community's rich heritage.
Moscow is a great community full of genuine, caring and active citizens. I
am thankful that I live in a country where I have not needed to worry about
liberty or freedom, that the past and present sacrifices of those in the armed
forces protect us.
As of late, however, there has been a small but loud group of displeased
persons who claim tolerance, yet they are showing how intolerant they are of
other religious and/or moral views.
It's important for me, and others, to keep in mind the majority of us are
trying to live in an area that we are convinced is one of the best places on
Earth to live and raise our families.
I am concerned some have grown suspicious of others in our community and
harsh words have been expressed. Accusations have been made about one another
and those who have control of the "public square."
Moscow is far too good a town for this kind of behavior to continue. Our
founding fathers would have expected more, and so should we.
* Paul J. Kimmell is executive director of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce
and a Latah County commissioner.
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--
Thanks,
s
* * * * * * * *
Sean Michael
.dwg
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