PARRY IRONY: Mag publisher slams council members who okay big handout

COLUMBIA, 3/15/10  (Beat Byte) --   Talk about gratitude!

 

At tonight's Columbia City council meeting, council members will approve Bill R56-10 on their Consent Agenda (items for automatic approval), authorizing, among other contracts, a $15,000 payment to editor and publisher Fred Parry's Inside Columbia Magazine in support of Parry's 2010 Wine and Food Festival. 

 

But in a strident editorial for this month's Prime Magazine, Parry (left) urges voters to oust incumbent Columbia City Council members Karl Skala and Jerry Wade, both of whom approved the big payment.  The main reason for Parry's dismay:  Skala and Wade don't support businesses! 

 

"The opportunity to retire City Council members Jerry Wade and Karl Skala and send them back to private life offers so much hope for the future of our community that I'm counting the days like a child anticipating Christmas," Parry writes.

 

Parry is also behind a mass email that helped turn lawyer Glen Ehrhardt into a fledgling political operative.  Blind cc'd on March 10th to a Parry-sized audience, and re-cc'd by Ehrhardt, the email urges local business owners to:  

 

1)  Attend a March 15th Bob McDavid mayoral candidacy fundraiser. 

2) Create A Dialogue With Your Employees: Talk with your employees about the importance of voting in the April elections and how public policy decisions often impact the local business climate and ultimately their livelihoods. Make sure your employees understand the cause and effect nature of inappropriate public policy decisions.

 

3)  Bring The Election To Your Employees:  Invite local candidates to visit your business for a tour and let these candidates engage your employees in a Q&A session.

4)  Give Your Employees An Hour Off To Vote

 

"It’s time for a change on Columbia’s City Council," Parry writes.  "For the first time in its 104-year history, the Columbia Chamber of Commerce has endorsed a slate of candidates in Columbia’s City Council races...Just in case you missed it, the chamber has endorsed these candidates:

Dr. Robert McDavid    Mayor of Columbia
Gary Kespohl              Third Ward City Council
Darryl Dudley              Fourth Ward City Council

Parry also offers to take campaign donations for "any of these candidates.  Feel free to mail or drop by your contribution to my attention at the address below.  I will make certain that candidates promptly receive your donation."

 

Parry concludes by urging his contacts to "forward this email to as many like-minded business owners and managers as you possibly can.  It is critical that we get our employees to the polls on April 6."

 

City Council agreement with Parry's Inside Columbia magazine, p. 4

Parry editorial in Prime Magazine  (click animated magazine image -- go to page 46)