I’m not sure whether I should thank the writers of the open letter to myself for giving me a forum to express my opinion or if I should be frustrated by the fact that they did attempt to contact me first before writing the editorial.
Anyone who wants to reach me can contact me by calling my cell phone at 345-8720 or e-mailing me at [email protected] or [email protected]. This information is readily available in many forums, and if you look up my name in the phone book and call my home number (251-2412), the message will tell you the same information. So please feel free to contact me at any time.
Regarding the incident in the open letter. I received a message from the Common Council office that Paul Temple had called to give me information about the incident and that he was merely passing on information and that I did not need to contact him. So I didn’t. This was the only call I got regarding the incident.
Typically, Council staff does not take messages for me but rather passes along my cell phone number. If Mr. Temple had made it clear to the person in the Common Council office that he required a return phone call, I would have done so. If he had indicated that he wanted to talk to me directly, the Council staff would have passed along my number.
The article also seems to insinuate that I have my priorities mixed up and references alleged votes that I took. If you want to learn more about me and the issues I ran on and the issues I have been working on for the past two years, that should be easy. Check out my campaign website, brendakonkel.org. I’d be happy to give you some of the left-over issue-oriented literature from my campaign.
I’m always happy to talk about the issues I’ve been working. In the past few months I have been working on getting identification numbers on the police riot gear, tenants’ rights, affordable housing, inclusionary zoning, sensible downtown development, sensible drug and alcohol policies, limiting big-box retail-store size, encouraging citizen involvement, and election and campaign reform. My agenda is clear; I make no apologies for it and I do not try to hide it. I think the voters in District 2 agree, because they re-elected me with 78 percent of the vote.
More to the point, was the incident of the flattening of tires in the Langdon Street area inappropriate? Absolutely. Do I condone the actions of the people who did the vandalism? Absolutely not. It seems like a no-brainer, and it didn’t seem like the type of thing I needed to issue a press statement on. The reporters did not contact me on the incident so I made no comment.
Since I found out about the incident, Captain Yudice has kept me updated. No one has come forward to claim responsibility. Another incident happened on East Mifflin Street where a SUV was keyed with words to the effect that the vehicle was a gas hog. I immediately inquired if there were other reports of such an incident in the neighborhood, and when I spoke with Cpt. Yudice yesterday, he indicated that it seemed to be an isolated incident. Unfortunately, that was much more than a flat tire; it caused $1,600 damage to the vehicle. I did not issue a statement on that incident either, but in case you’re wondering, I don’t condone that incident either!
Our political differences and the issues we care about are good reasons to get passionate, great reasons to get involved, and a wonderful opportunity to be a part of our community, but let’s “do no harm” to each other, or to each others’ property. I’d urge a little more respect, a little more kindness towards our fellow man and woman and please, if you have concerns with me or anyone else, try communicating with them one-on-one, you’ll find a lot of issues can be resolved that way. Peace.
Brenda Konkel ([email protected]) is the District 2 alder.