Guest View: Ignorance, ineptitude, and influence: the I's have it!

Well, local governments of both Cloquet and Thomson Township have again proven their ability to stay ignorant, inept, and “peddling” influence; this, specifically in regard to CAT-7.

Cloquet’s administrator was recently quoted in the Pine Knot News as saying he didn’t know [ignorance] about the legal arrangements for CAT-7 to which the city was obligated; even after months of strife in its operational regard, one would be led to believe that government leadership would at least investigate [ineptitude]. And what about the city’s legal counsel (which/who represents all four entities involved— also a possible “conflict of interest”); they were certainly aware of the strife; and, they were also the firm which originally wrote and arranged the legal documents [influence]: They should have apprised the city of the existence of the arrangement, at the very least.

Thomson Township is also complicit on all accounts, in that one member of its own board of supervisors, Jason Paulson, brought the very subject to the board’s March 7, 2019 regular meeting as a proposal to appoint this writer to the CAT-7 board as one of the township’s representatives: It died for lack of a second, as documented in the official meeting minutes: “Discussion was held on the local Cable Access Television (CAT-7) station. A motion was made by Paulson to appoint John Bergman as the Town’s representative on the Cloquet Cable Commission. After lengthy discussion regarding the current representation on the commission, lack of commission meetings, advertising on CAT-7, and televising meetings, the motion died for lack of a second. The issue is tabled until it can be determined if the Town currently has representation on the

commission.”

Nothing was done by the township to determine anything. Five months later, during the township board meeting Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019 citizen Patty Murto made a presentation to the board and asked to be appointed to the CAT-7 commission. She was appointed. (I’m personally just fine with her appointment.) All of a sudden, it’s “resolved” after five months of nothing! Why should citizens (e.g., Patty or I) have to do the work of the local government representatives, their staff or legal counsel? It’s up to the government entities to do their own “due diligence,” as legal beagles call it.

And, one further question might be: “If the board didn’t know what the situation with appointments was on March 7 (they were going to “determine” it), how would anyone presently know (when they didn’t know on March 7) that clerk Rhonda Peleski was already appointed, as was stated in the Aug. 15 meeting, when it was only reviewed five months later?”

All elected and other government representatives, their staffs, and hired legal and other services representation have the job to serve the people; this is another place where influence comes in:

It’s unfortunate that many political leaders and their hired staff appear to be in it much more for their own egos, i.e., influence, than for their citizenry. Some are also in for self preservation — more applicable to hired staff and outside support representatives — or for information that helps them in their vocations “outside” of politics. This is true even for local governments.

John Bergman is a Thomson Township resident who is frequently the only citizen in the audience at township board meetings. He is an engaged citizen who ran unsuccessfully for a township supervisor position in 2018.