HOPPE/READ: Tangle in Cross Creek mediation dispute

COLUMBIA, 4/3/10  (Beat Byte) --  A vocal dispute playing out at the Columbia Missourian may be headed for a new spin at the Columbia Daily Tribune, sources tell the Heart Beat. 

 

At issue: Dualing letters from Sixth Ward Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe and Fourth Ward Council candidate Sarah Read about the role of mediation in resolving neighbor-developer conflicts at Cross Creek. 

 

"It is important that the voters of the Fourth ward and city know about the inappropriateness of the mediation process used for the Crosscreek Development, at the intersection of Stadium Boulevard and U.S. 63," Mrs. Hoppe wrote the Missourian March 31.  "The developer-paid mediator for that process was Sarah Read."

 

Tribune publisher Hank Waters endorsed Read this week.

 

Citing transparency-busting moves like forcing Shepard Neighborhood representatives to sign a nondisclosure agreement that later tied their hands, Hoppe -- an attorney and MU law school-trained mediator -- called the nondisclosure move appropriate for a courtroom but "totally inappropriate in a mediation between neighborhoods and developers for city developments."  

 

Mediation, Mrs. Hoppe insisted, must occur in a level playing field.  But in this case, the developer "paid and picked the mediator and the neighborhood representatives had no say in selecting the mediator or in the type of process that was used."   

 

Responding the next day, Mrs. Read called Mrs. Hoppe's letter a repeat of "various misrepresentations that have been made in the blogs by supporters of Tracy Greever-Rice since the beginning of my campaign."

 

Citing what she termed Mrs. Hoppe's lack of preparedness, Mrs. Read said the Councilwoman's "statements are at odds with the contemporaneous comments of participants reported in the June 23, 2008, article in the Missourian titled 'Striving for unity in Crosscreek.'...Not only did both of the involved neighborhood associations ratify the final agreement negotiated by the parties, that agreement was approved by both the Planning and Zoning Commission and the City Council." 

 

Read then suggested voters could "judge the appropriateness of a sitting councilperson attacking a candidate in another ward" and endorse a candidate associated with the politics of personal attack that dominate the blogosphere or choose among candidates who believe in more genuine and informed dialogue." 

 

RELATED:

 

Barbara Hoppe Letter

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2010/03/31/letter-reads-role-crosscreek-demands-scrutiny/

 

Sarah Read responds

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2010/04/01/letter-read-responds-hoppes-accusations/