DDn finally acknowledges Esrati.com in print

In a story in today’s DDn focusing on former Mayor Gary Leitzell’s position on issue 6, the paper did an amazing thing- it actually acknowledged the existence of Esrati.com which had a post on the city mailing on April 12:

Earlier this month, David Esrati, who unsuccessfully ran for seat on the city commission last year, also criticized the flier on his blog, Esrati.com, saying it was not honest nor informative.

“My father, a senior, who is relatively astute, said that he read it — and has no clue what Issue 6 is,” Esrati wrote.

via Ex-Dayton mayor critical of tax campaign | www.mydaytondailynews.com.

Generally, you read about many of the things posted on Esrati.com about a week later in the DDn, although sometimes it takes them as long as a year and a half as it did on the QBase stories.

What’s still missing from the discussion of this mailing is who funded it- and why does the city claim that these renewals cost the city money according to another DDn article, although they only tell part of the story- the cost to the BOE:

It also does not make sense to periodically spend taxpayer dollars on election costs, Williams said.

The city of Dayton paid $87,706 in 2000 and $4,188 in 2006 to put tax renewal measures on the ballot, according to the Montgomery County Board of Elections.

via: http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/news/dayton-wants-income-tax-renewal-to-be-permanent/nfbqz/

Why is Whaley the only elected official on the mailer? And why is it a campaign photo? When I asked Dayton City Manager Tim Riordan who paid for this- he was evasive and talked about city employees chipping in and a fundraiser. More than likely, unions were pressured to support the tax that helps pay them as a “do us a solid now- and we’ll go easy on you in contract negotiations.” Of course Whaley is the queen of the unions receiving tens of thousands of dollars in her mayoral campaign from them- many of the donations in $10k checks.

If voters say no to Issue 6 in May, it will be back on the ballot in November- as a renewal as a temporary tax again. Of course, most voters don’t know that- or understand this issue- since Whaley decided to play games and politicize the first mailer.

Look to the DDn to run a story soon on the questions raised in my last post about the sheriff being the head of the local Republican Party. Whether it cites the article as breaking the story or not is yet to be seen.

Also- note that the Dayton Business Journal has ALWAYS given credit to Esrati.com for breaking stories following standard journalistic practice.

 

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