See this 02-17-2014 response from Jamie Fontaine of Fontaine & Company:
None of the materials linked to VMP’s website are confidential in nature, including the NFM documents. They were developed at the request of and in coordination with supporters in this community as a toolkit to help make their voices heard. They have been handed out at every NFM house party and were put online so that supporters could easily access the documents electronically.
Our work with VMP and the community is an extension of efforts that have been ongoing since 2007 - only now intensified as the project progresses through the entitlement process and residents have been more active in requesting help with their advocacy efforts. Many don’t have time to write blogs, organize rallies and attend every meeting, but care deeply about the opportunities that exist within VMP’s plan and want to be a part of creating something great.
We are, of course, eager to facilitate efforts to organize and vocalize support because at the end of the day, every resident deserves a voice on McMillan.
Jaime Fontaine
Fontaine & Company
1 comment:
Does no one else smell that? The smell of bullcrap in that statement? There's so much in this "statement" that I have issue with, but let me pick the biggest two:
1. To say you're work is an "extension" of efforts that have been going on since 2007 is one thing; to have documents that do nothing more than put your words in peoples' mouths is quite another. People slapping their names onto blog posts, letters, etc...isn't helping them deal with their every day time management challenges - it's astroturfing at it's finest.
2. The last line - "every resident deserves a voice" is interesting. Isn't part of a community relations strategy to gather and mobilize supporters, and use those supporters to draft correspondences to the media and public officials? Then how does every resident who deserves having their voice being heard get that opportunity when all of the materials are written for them? Who's voice is getting heard here?
Ms. Fontaine, this sort of crap may work up in Baltimore and around Maryland where you work to push Wal-Mart's on unsuspecting communities, but this sort of thing does not work in our neighborhoods.
And why is someone from Baltimore working in our neighborhoods anyway?
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