Leadership Germantown Alumni Newsletter Gives Incumbents Weeks More Notice than Challengers for Date of Forum

I referred to this  Leadership Alumni Newsletter in Challengers' Late Notice Leads to Imbalanced "Forum" (link to the Commercial Appeal article on this subject)

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In his coverage of the Aldermen Candidate Forum held on September 20,  Daniel Connolly of the Commercial Appeal reported the explanation given by Leadership Germantown Alumni (the sponsors) for the late September 9 notice received by the challengers—namely, that the emcees were not finalized until eleven days prior to the event. What LGA neglected to tell Mr. Connolly was that its very own newsletter displayed the September 20 Forum date prominently, and that on August 11 this newsletter was emailed to LGA’s membership, which includes the three incumbents in the race (Janda, Owens, and Klevan).  Neither of the challengers (Massey and Nischwitz) are Leadership Germantown Alumni, and therefore they did not receive the newsletter. Their notice of the event came a full four weeks after that received by the incumbents.

When Mr. Nischwitz could not attend due to a previously scheduled out-of-town business meeting, LGA claimed the event could not be rescheduled.  Appropriately, Mr.Massey refused to attend a “sham” Forum that, thanks to the last minute notice, did not enjoy the benefit of a candidate’s participation. That LGA nonetheless proceeded with this showcase of its own favored alumni under these circumstances is nothing short of a disgrace. If the tables had been turned, you can rest assured that the event would have been rescheduled.