An Unfortunate Series of Events (pt 1)

When the P-G panel asked "our" question about the nonprofits not paying nearly enough ...

Well, let's turn it over to the Trib's David M. Brown.

DeSantis said nonprofits would be willing to give more than the $5 million a group of them contributed "if they knew the money was not going into the general fund" but was earmarked for "specific noble purposes," such as meeting the city's pension obligations.

"I think they have lost confidence in city government," said DeSantis, 48, of Downtown.

Well, he is not going as far as the Comet-Ferlo-Shields position of amending state law. For that, we are disappointed.

Yet his is also a fair idea that will help pay off our pensions, help impress state officials, and perhaps truly help generate more revenue from nonprofits.

Ravenstahl said that nonprofits, "to the contrary of my opponent's remarks, have recently signed an agreement to continue to contribute to the city, so the suggestion that they've lost faith in the city and don't want to continue to contribute is false."

DeSantis turned to Ravenstahl and accused him of "mischaracterizing what I said." "I said very clearly that you had signed the agreement but there was no amount specified," DeSantis said.

After a moderator told DeSantis to let Ravenstahl finish, the mayor said his leadership style with the nonprofits is "cooperative rather than confrontational," glancing at DeSantis as he said it and drawing a laugh from a crowd of nearly 200 ...
This was so unfortunate.

First of all, if DeSantis is going to break into Ravenstahl's words, he ought to hit the ball out of the park. He hit a double, at best. Oh well.

Worse yet, he turned Ravenstahl's statement of being "cooperative rather than confrontational" with the nonprofits into a laugh line.

Otherwise, it would have been a horrible, horrible gaffe!

All photo credits in the series go to The Collected Notes of Agent Ska.