{"id":1336,"date":"2016-06-03T10:04:49","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T15:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/truthinaddison.com\/?page_id=1336"},"modified":"2016-06-03T10:05:09","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T15:05:09","slug":"1336-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/truthinaddison.com\/?page_id=1336","title":{"rendered":"The Truth About Kanter, Part 1 \u201cThere are a lot of politics surrounding my work\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Truth About Kanter, Part 1
\n<\/strong>\u201cThere are a lot of politics <\/strong>
\nsurrounding my work\u201d<\/strong>
\nBy Susan M. Halpern<\/strong>
\nFormer Addison Councilmember (1992-1999)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In a meeting held on November 21, 2014, Addison employees Chris Terry and Cheryl Delaney expressed concern to accountant Larry Kanter that he was not treating Addison\u2019s staff respectfully, and that Kanter \u201coften failed to present all the facts or left out pertinent information which resulted in casting staff inappropriately and unfairly in an unfavorable light.\u201d Kanter\u2019s response was that his hiring was \u201ca very political process\u201d and that \u201cTHEY SHOULD BE AWARE THAT a lot of politics [were] going ON surrounding his work.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This confirms \u2013 IN KANTER\u2019S OWN WORDS — what we\u2019ve said all along: Kanter\u2019s work was politically motivated. It also confirms that KANTER KNEW that his work was politically motivated.<\/p>\n

But these words \u2013 and Kanter\u2019s damning acknowledgement of the political nature of his work \u2013 were actively<\/em> concealed<\/em> from Addison voters by Addison\u2019s council, led by Todd Meier. The concealment of Lea Dunn\u2019s January 4, 2015 memo, quoted above, made it possible for Meier to run a shameful campaign of misinformation and lies in an effort to influence the May election.\u00a0 The whole thing was premised on Kanter\u2019s now-demonstrably-false claims of non-cooperation by Addison\u2019s staff, as well as Kanter\u2019s inflammatory, baseless and politically-motivated claims about supposedly untraceable \u201cmillions.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was all a big lie. A charade. A performance. And no part of it would have been possible if Addison had obeyed the Open Records Act, and produced Lea Dunn\u2019s memo in response to my February 25, 2016 request.\u00a0 The public was DENIED the chance to know the truth by the wrongful withholding of this document.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start there. Lea Dunn\u2019s memo was withheld because Addison claimed that it contained attorney-client privileged information.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a close call.\u00a0 I\u2019ve practiced law for 33 years, and I\u2019ve prepared privilege logs in countless lawsuits.\u00a0 Lea Dunn\u2019s memo isn\u2019t privileged.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t a phrase \u2013 not a word \u2013 that would justify a claim of privilege. This document was withheld for political reasons<\/strong>.\u00a0 It would have exposed Meier\u2019s campaign of misinformation and lies.\u00a0 And here\u2019s the thing: this is exactly the scenario that the Open Records Act exists to prevent.\u00a0 But it happened, and the truth is that this document would have remained hidden if Meier\u2019s campaign had succeeded.\u00a0 Meier has made countless claims regarding \u201ctransparency,\u201d but the concealment of this document is the reality of his regime.<\/p>\n

Of course, as the inevitability of the release of Lea Dunn\u2019s memo became apparent, Meier employed another favored tactic: revisionist history. Meier began to tell people that he actually favored releasing Lea Dunn\u2019s memo, always adding that this is why he had directed the staff and Addison\u2019s attorney to submit the matter to the AG.<\/p>\n

I hope no one was fooled by these utterly misleading claims. It\u2019s this simple: you don\u2019t go to the AG to produce<\/em> documents, you go to the AG to WITHHOLD documents.\u00a0 Addison asked the AG to bless WITHHOLDING Lea Dunn\u2019s memo. The direction to go to the AG was a direction to the staff to WITHHOLD Lea Dunn\u2019s memo.<\/p>\n

And of course, we know that the AG signed off on \u2013 well \u2013 something<\/em>.\u00a0 This flawed process allows Addison to submit \u201cexamples\u201d of withheld documents, and then use an AG ruling to withhold other documents.\u00a0 The problem is that neither the \u201cexamples\u201d nor the other withheld documents are identified.\u00a0 In this case, I don\u2019t know what Addison submitted to the AG and claimed was an \u201cexample\u201d of documents being withheld, nor do I know what other documents Addison is withholding based on this \u201cexample.\u201d It is a fundamentally flawed system. Municipalities who will wrongfully withhold documents, as I believe Addison certainly did with respect to Lea Dunn\u2019s memo, can easily manipulate the process.\u00a0 Think: fox guarding hen house.<\/p>\n

For his part, our illustrious AG seems willing to rubber-stamp anything. In allowing the WITHHOLDING of Lea Dunn\u2019s memo and apparently other documents, the AG accepted Addison\u2019s representations that Lea Dunn\u2019s memo to the Finance Committee was actually a communication \u201cexchanged between the town\u2019s attorney and the town\u2019s consultant,\u201d even though the face of the document reflects that it was Lea Dunn sending it to the Finance Committee.\u00a0 The Kanter memo quoted in Lea Dunn\u2019s memo was likewise sent to the Finance Committee.\u00a0 In fact, I have yet to see any document \u201cexchanged between the town\u2019s attorney and the town\u2019s consultant,\u201d the description and representation made to the AG.<\/p>\n

So it looks like the AG suspended reality to approve Addison\u2019s withholding of Lea Dunn\u2019s memo, and other undefined documents. Think of it this way: Addison sent the AG a pig and represented that it was a horse. The AG looked at what was obviously a pig, but still wrote back and accepted Addison\u2019s representation that the pig was a horse.\u00a0 Then, since horses could be hidden, the AG approved Addison\u2019s withholding of the pig, apparently because Addison was willing to falsely claim that the pig was a horse.\u00a0 If it sounds ridiculous, it is.<\/p>\n

The Open Records Act is a very serious matter. It is a critical element of the public\u2019s ability to demand accountability from its elected officials.\u00a0 And in this case, the system failed Addison\u2019s residents in a very significant way.\u00a0 The system allowed Meier and his cadre to lie to the public and to conceal Kanter\u2019s wrongful conduct. No matter who they supported, all Addison residents should be deeply concerned about a \u201ctone at the top\u201d that seems determined to ignore the Open Records Act.<\/p>\n

Because of this lack of transparency, we witnessed our own mayor disparaging Addison with no fear that the truth would come out. Meier embarrassed Addison in front of the entire Metroplex.\u00a0 And he mercilessly \u2013 AND UNJUSTIFIABLY \u2013 attacked prior staff and management.\u00a0 All for perceived political gain.\u00a0 It was no less than an effort to steal an election based on a platform built of lies: lies made possible by concealment and secrecy.<\/p>\n

The current council must take steps to ensure that nothing like this happens again, including by taking steps to end the aggressive and misguided resistance of many legitimate Open Records Act requests.<\/p>\n

As well, everyone in Addison should be interested in understanding how Kanter\u2019s work was allowed to be conducted in secrecy. The answer is somewhat complicated, and best addressed in parts.\u00a0 So stay tuned.\u00a0 You won\u2019t want to miss this.<\/p>\n

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