Setting The Record Straight

Joe Harrison is running for reelection to the Corinth City Council, place 4 during municipal elections 2012. Sim Portnoy is challenging him again (he ran against Joe and lost in 2010). Recently Sim Portnoy impugned Joe Harrison's voting record and, by association, my voting record, in a desperate attempt to distract voters from his vacuous and outrageous statements. Now, he's directly attacking my voting record, and that is not going to work.


In an email sent out to a few people, mostly as an irritant to them, he talks about Joe's (and my) voting record. Here's what he wrote:
"... But in the interest of full disclosure, I would like to share some information about their voting records they may not have discussed with you.
Councilman Hanson and incumbent Councilman Harrison voted unanimously 72 out of 72 council meetings over 3 consecutive years. ...
If you were approached by City Council members soliciting your vote on behalf of their fellow incumbent councilman, in the interest of full disclosure, would you want to know that they voted unanimously on every single issue 100% of the time? ...
Joe Harrison is a 6-year council incumbent and 4-year Corinth Economic Development board member that voted unanimously with his fellow council on every vote. ..."

"Damn straight I'd want to know!", you say. Even I was angry at me for voting with Joe "unanimously on every single issue 100% of the time". 72 times over three years. I was so angry I read every single set of minutes from January 2010 to January 2011 (my first full calendar year on the council). These minutes are publicly posted at the city of Corinth's website.

Here's what I found: From January 2010 to January 2011 the Council met in 27 regular and special sessions where votes were taken. In 12 of those sessions there were split votes - as in NOT unanimous. 44% of the time in 2010 the council's vote was split. So Sim Portnoy's assertion that "Joe Harrison is a 6-year council incumbent and 4-year Corinth Economic Development board member that voted unanimously with his fellow council on every vote" is FALSE.

So, we have three options in front of us: 1) Sim Portnoy knows the actual facts from the minutes, and made these false allegations anyway, 2) Sim Portnoy is unable to read and comprehend important legal documents like council meeting minutes (incompetence), 3) Sim Portnoy never bothered to look at the actual minutes, as ACTUAL FACTS would detract from his vacuous and outrageous statements (lazy and incurious). Which of those three qualities do you want on YOUR council?

Oh yeah, in the spirit of full disclosure, in addition to the minutes I read, I counted all the regular and special sessions the council met in from May 21, 2009 to May 3, 2012 - there were 73. He was ALMOST right on that one. Not bad considering all he did to come up with 72 was to multiply 12 (months in a year) by 2 (scheduled meetings per month) and multiply that by 3 (years since I was sworn in).

In the interest of saving you some time, here are some specific minutes that provide ACTUAL FACTS: April 29, 2010; Oct 21, 2010; Nov 18, 2010.