And the NO VOTE has it!!

[30A Television]

There was also the weird email request from 30A TV, that looked like porn spam in my email box, as it was from a "Ms. Fancy Hands", who was asking for answers to very biased interview questions (the 30A TV owner is on the board of the Walton County Small Business Association, who formed a PAC to oppose us, and had one $10,000 contribution to do it). Sorry, but I am too busy between my family and job to screw around with half ass or silly media efforts.

Fancy Hands is a well respected personal assistant service ( we too are busy) look them up at www.Fancyhands.com

What we asked for were a response to the questions, or a general statement, so you could have replied in any fashion you wished to. We did try to form them in a way that could have been answered regardless of stance.

All responses were printed. We do not speak for any one individual or pac or group. We do our best to accommodate anyone who wants to come on camera. We do also accept political adverts in election season just like WGJH WMMB Fox 28 which helps us to cover our out of pocket cost of covering community events, as we have done since 2008. We did not however, run the No commercial that ran in other media outlets

Here is what we sent:
Please respond with your responses to all or some of the questions below or a with general statement
Questions :
What do you think would be the impact to Walton County if the School Superintendent was appointed versus elected
Would appointed add a burden to the tax base if the cost of hiring and contracts negotiations increased
Have you seen an increase in school standards in other counties where a change to appointed versus elected occurred.
Could the change reduce/take away the voting power of the residents of the county?
What is the biggest challenge facing the Walton County schools today ?

------------------------------------------
Contact email is admin @ 30a.tv

 

[Cuff]

I agree that it is difficult to find information about the candidates . I have lived here for 1 and 1/2 years and have yet to find a newspaper or tv station or web site that provides information about the candidates or other important civic issues.
As a result I voted for no one. I did vote to appoint the superintendent because I think that job is too important to be at the whim of politics. That person should be a PHD with a clear understanding about how children learn and how teachers teach and should be able to manage finances . That person should be able to make sure kids are prepared . The problem is that I also want to know about the school board members who will hire the superintendent and set policy. Other than some strong opinions on this page I've no idea the qualifications or their position and vision for our children. So I voted for no one . Reminded of Mark Twain who said , " For practice God created school board members and then he created fools".
Unions were born of necessity and will always be necessary.
This is a beautiful and vibrant part of the world but it is also backward. Never ever would I have lived here when my daughter was of school age. Why would anyone want less for their kid?

 

[Matt J]

Your nonpartisan stance would look much better if you weren't also a member of the group apposing the issue.

 

[Misty]

Here is what we sent:
Please respond with your responses to all or some of the questions below or a with general statement
Questions :
What do you think would be the impact to Walton County if the School Superintendent was appointed versus elected
Would appointed add a burden to the tax base if the cost of hiring and contracts negotiations increased
Have you seen an increase in school standards in other counties where a change to appointed versus elected occurred.
Could the change reduce/take away the voting power of the residents of the county?
What is the biggest challenge facing the Walton County schools today ?

Hmmm, looks like pretty straight forward, easily answered questions to me. How the HELL-O someone could even remotely relate that to "porn spam" is beyond me but then again, I don't get any porn spam in my inbox.

 

[Matt J]

Here's the original email:

Hello Ms. Jenny Dargavell, I’m Paul Vizard’s assistant. He is putting together an article on the Walton County School Superintendent referendum and would really value having your comments to the below listed questions. The article will be released this week on 30a tv. He would truly appreciate your response to all or some of the questions or a general statement in response to the topic.

1.What do you think would be the impact to Walton County if the School Superintendent was appointed versus elected?

2.Would appointed add a burden to the tax base if the cost of hiring and contracts negotiations increased?

3.Have you seen an increase in school standards in other counties where a change to appointed versus elected occurred?

4.Could the change reduce the voting power of the residents of the county?

5.What is the biggest challenge facing the Walton County schools today?

Thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to answer these questions at your earliest availability. We look forward to receiving your reply.


All the best,
Elite W.

I'm curious when the other folks were notified of these questions and the time frame they were given to answer. Art Miller was interviewed days prior to that in front of Butler Elementary on the bike path.

 

[Matt J]

I'm guessing the 3rd party service was used to avoid the complications that one member of a PAC communicating with a member of another PAC causes?

 

[30A Television]

Here's the original email:



I'm curious when the other folks were notified of these questions and the time frame they were given to answer. Art Miller was interviewed days prior to that in front of Butler Elementary on the bike path.

The time frame began 3 weeks before Aug 26th to those contacted and jdarg were also offered an opportunity to come on camera when we talked at Vue.

 

[Matt J]

The time frame began 3 weeks before Aug 26th to those and you were also offered an opportunity to come on camera when we talked at Vue.

You clearly have me confused with someone else.

 

[Jim Tucker]

I agree that it is difficult to find information about the candidates . I have lived here for 1 and 1/2 years and have yet to find a newspaper or tv station or web site that provides information about the candidates or other important civic issues.
As a result I voted for no one. I did vote to appoint the superintendent because I think that job is too important to be at the whim of politics. That person should be a PHD with a clear understanding about how children learn and how teachers teach and should be able to manage finances . That person should be able to make sure kids are prepared . The problem is that I also want to know about the school board members who will hire the superintendent and set policy. Other than some strong opinions on this page I've no idea the qualifications or their position and vision for our children. So I voted for no one . Reminded of Mark Twain who said , " For practice God created school board members and then he created fools".
Unions were born of necessity and will always be necessary.
This is a beautiful and vibrant part of the world but it is also backward. Never ever would I have lived here when my daughter was of school age. Why would anyone want less for their kid?

Great post!

I agree with you about not really getting to know the candidates. This forum is free and open. Candidates can post information, links, photos, and respond to questions. It takes steel to run for office. This should be the first place candidates come to interface with voters. Fior every person who posts here I'm sure there are thousands who just read. Everyone refers everyone else here and it's the best source of real info. Put it all out there (here). Show us you are real. I'll vote for you.

 

[Jdarg]

If I could figure out how to screen shot my inbox, it would show that the email request was from "Fancy Hands". That's all I saw until I had time to look at it closer, and then saw the request made in such a silly way. Why not just send a professional email? We also didn't think answering this request would make a difference either way, and the only people who seemed to see it received it via email, and that email list (I saw it), had people with minds already made up. Team Yes is making plans and moving on- stay tuned for news! Voter turnout in this election went up to 24%- an increase, but really pathetic . It's pretty safe to say you have the referendum to thank. Now I hope 9821 who made the effort to vote on the referendum, especially the NOs, now make the effort to find some real solutions for the problems of our school district.

Regarding Fancy Hands being a well- respected service, maybe if I had known anyone else that had ever used it, or ever seen it in my in box, I wouldn't have been so suspicious and irritated in the silly method used to request information about something I and others took very seriously.