Here's my email to the reporter of the local TV story. I am not publishing her perfectly pleasant response because I didn't ask her if I could, and there's really not much there. If she is reading this and would like me to, drop me a note. There was one nice little thing about a couple who she spoke with, but it's not "mine" to share.

Good afternoon!

I just caught your story about the Maplewood City Council and it's good to see that fiasco getting attention. However, I can't help but comment that it appeared very little balance was given to the various "sides" there.

I'm not a Maplewood resident (I live on Saint Paul's East Side) and I don't know any of the people involved, but a local paper's coverage of the events caught my interest and I've been watching ever since.

On my own blog I've had a number of posts chronicling the events from a perspective I think quite different from the blog you mentioned: What's Left of Maplewood. I'm glad they are out there and participating, but they certainly present only one, seemingly fairly hostile vantage point. (Why hostile? Because so much of the argumentation seems ad hominem.)

Anyway, I wanted to offer my few posts as something of a different take on the events. I'm surprised you missed them as somehow my posts rank very highly when Googling (or otherwise searching out) the topic.

http://www.kpmartin.com/

In writing, I followed up on the coverage I'd seen to date, and also on people who have been quoted in the past, noting that it seems they themselves may have axes to grind. Dale Tippler, who was in your story, is one of those people that I discovered had at least something of a bias. Bias doesn't make his feedback invalid, but it does shed light on where he's coming from. I just like to hear from biased people on all sides, when possible.

I watched your story twice and I didn't notice any perspective shared other than those who were unhappy. Of course, you don't have a limitless slate like a blogger does, and it may be that no one from the council's majority wanted to speak with you about the issue, but nevertheless I think it is a more interesting story the more perspectives it is viewed from.

I'm glad to see how clearly you brought forward that the council is not working together well at all. You may know that there was a commissioned report to that effect with a wonderful quote that the city council needs "to learn how to act like adults, respect differences, and then use the electoral process to resolve outstanding differences."

Thanks for your time and attention to that interesting story,

Ken Martin

Saint Paul's luxurious East Side