To understand my comments here one really needs to read councilmember Pflumm’s statement from the 8/11 council meeting and published in the Shawnee Dispatch at: http://www.shawneedispatch.com/news/2008/aug/12/letter_dc_dinner_explained/
Mr. Pflumm’s statement is so full of holes, as to make a piece of Swiss cheese look like solid steel. Anything I am about to say can be verified by reviewing the minutes of Shawnee council meetings on 6/23, 7/14 & 7/28.
First Mr. Pflumm states that informal meetings can enlist support for City’s needs and goals. This is true, if you know who you are meeting with.
Over the course of the three council meetings neither Mr. Pflumm nor Councilmember Straub were sure whether they met with 2 or 3 senate staffers. Names were used based on business cards in Mr. Pflumm’s possession (which leads me to believe that neither of them made any contemporaneous notes for use as follow up). One of those names proved to be of a person who never attended the dinner.
His statement at the 8/11 council meeting finally gave the correct names. He also says that these individuals can verify that. What Mr. Pflumm fails to mention is that it wasn’t until the 7/28 council meeting that he finally found out who he really had dinner with. And how did he find that out? Because I provided an email from Sen. Robert’s office denying that any member of that office was there, and then summarized a phone call with a member of Sen. Brownback’s office who supplied the correct names.
He would like folks to think that these were simple mistakes. I do not consider these simple mistakes. I consider them negligence and a complete lack of due diligence. If a councilmember does not know who they had dinner with, how important can that dinner be? In view of the fact that our council members do not dine every day with senate staffers this event should have stood out in their minds. If one does not know who they had dinner with, how can they follow up to see if their discussions have produced any results? This now makes me wonder what was discussed at that dinner.
