COLUMBIA, 7/26/10 (Beat Byte)
-- In an email he sent last month to a group of
"friends" that included some 40 high-ranking past and present public
officials, from the three-member Boone County
Commission to directors of virtually every Columbia city department, Central
Missouri Development Council executive director Don
Stamper (left) blasted First Ward Councilman Paul Sturtz for
criticizing Columbia's IBM deal after Sturtz and other Council members had
earlier approved it.
Calling it a "very funny faux pas," Sturtz said Stamper
"sent four frantic email messages" to "recall" his message 10 minutes after
sending it. He was also incredulous that Stamper sent the missive to so many
well-known officials.
Upset over a June 29 Columbia Missourian story
that had Sturtz blasting IBM as a chronic manipulator of city
governments, Stamper accused the first-term Councilman of "positioning himself
against a policy that he voted for."
"He [Sturtz] voted for the issue, but now calls it a 'big
farce,'" Stamper wrote in the June 30 email from his ConAggMo business
address. "To call this a big farce is a much different position than voting
for the proposal."
In the Missourian story, Sturtz (center right, Missourian photo) also lambasted the
insider deals IBM brought to town on the taxpayer dime. Those
deals include a $350,000 flooring contract for Regional Economic Development Inc.
(REDI) chairman Dave Griggs; a $10 million construction contract
for the Bob Lemone family's Little Dixie Construction; and the $3 million sale
of a Lemone-owned building to the city for IBM's local
headquarters.
"Am I mistaken, or was this done on his watch?" Stamper
exclaimed, adding that Sturtz himself was guilty of avoiding the very scrutiny
he now insisted IBM should have received. Calling Sturtz "a member of the
council who fails to return phone calls and will not schedule
meetings with constituents," Stamper asked, "Isn’t avoidance of this type a form
of avoiding public scrutiny?"
Also taking aim at former Third Ward Councilman Karl
Skala, Stamper told his group, "You got to love these
guys. This was on their watch and now they are being critical. Have they
forgotten how much pressure they brought to the table for the announcement to
come before the election? This is very
disingenuous!"
Other members of Stamper's e-friends list who received the
emailed critique include MU curator Bo Frazier; former Columbia City Council
members Almeta Crayton, Bob Hutton, Chris Janku, and Darwin Hindman; Boone
County Sheriff Dwayne Carey; Boone County Circuit Court Judge Kevin Crane;
Boone County Assessor Tom Schauwecker; 5th Ward Councilwoman Laura Nauser; Boone
County Clerk Wendy Noren; and City of Columbia finance director Lori Fleming.
"If nothing else, it shows the strategy Stamper would have
used to attack me in a re-election bid," Sturtz concluded.
RELATED:
IBM deal filled with questions, secrecy
Untangling the IBM web: Players in deal have many
links.
Central Missouri Development Council
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