Back in the dark ages of VioPac version 7, I wrote a nicely sarcastic open letter to Council Member Dennis Kavanaugh of Mesa District 3. It was something I forgot about as soon as I wrote it because I was working on a much better (and much funnier) version to send to the EV Trib as a letter to the editor. Well, the nature of teh intrawebz being what it is, Mr. Kavanaugh found the version presented here (curse you, Googly overlords!) and this is the result of our correspondence.

The meeting I took with Mr. Kavanaugh mentioned below has been documented here.

Feedback? Speak up about it here.

Initial letter from VioPac, 21 June 2008

Dear Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh, Mesa District 3

I have just returned from the District 3 Pancake Breakfast you hosted at the fire station, and I must say I am, even for me, deeply disappointed. If you had no intention to speak to us actual voting citizens, why did you ask me to take 3 hours out of my Saturday morning to come down and meet with you?

At first I thought I had the wrong guy: I sat down next to you, introduced myself, and you didn't do likewise. You just gave a perfunctory "pleased to meet you". I asked you how the breakfast was going and you said "very well". I could see how visibly uncomfortable you were, having to sit next to one such as myself, and you took the first opportunity to get up and leave.

Okay, I said to myself, I'll try again.

So I stand in line while you're talking to another constituent, significantly older than I, which might explain why you were a little more comfortable with him. No matter, I wait. I was standing two feet away from you, and you must have seen me. You concluded your business, I called out to you, "excuse me Mr. Kavanaugh!" and you ducked and ran. Really! I could hardly believe it. I didn't think this kind of circus-act politics actually took place, but while I watched you bob and weave between the tables I realized that I had made the right decision when I voted for Mark Yarboroough.

All humor aside, Councilman, your attitude towards me is insulting to me personally and to the founding principles of a Federal Democratic Republic. You won't be rid of me so easily.

Council Member Kavanaugh, initial response. 26 June, 2008

Dear Open Letter Writer:

i am sorry you were not able to speak with me at length at the pancake breakfast. We had over 200 people attend for a two hour event and it was difficult to have lengthy conversations with anyone. I did leave the event for ten minutes when Mayor Smith asked me to accompany him on a tour of the Dobson police substation. If you talk to anyone who knows me, you will find I am accessible. Try sending me an e-mail....you are more likely to get a response than an insulting open letter that I happened to notice by chance.

VioPac reply, 26 June, 2008

Council Member Kavanaugh,

Thank you for getting back to me. The tone of the letter I posted was a direct result of a profound sense of disappointment, and if I took that too far I apologize. It was written directly after I returned home and I was, quite frankly, rather offended.

I'm sorry to say that while I appreciate your writing back to me, I'm no less insulted. Sir, I sat next to you for 10 minutes trying to start a conversation, and there was no one else at the table. To tell me now that you had more important business with the Mayor--who, I'll readily admit, I'm a fan of--only adds to my sense of loss.

Loss, you ask? Yes. As a voting member of your district, I don't think I'm out of line in expecting that I, not the Mayor, be your priority. When I see our elected representatives in Government treating American Citizens with so little regard, it breaks my heart. I don't like it, Mr. Kavanaugh, and if my initial letter was insulting, it comes within a context of 25 years of successive disappointment in governments local, state, and Federal.

My time is valuable too, Mr. Kavanaugh. I had hoped to speak to you in person about my neighborhood, and what we could do to make things better. The roads going down Southern, the corner of Southern and Alma School, armed robbery, security at Fiesta Mall, bringing in businesses that offer something other than $8/hr retail work and payday loans. Indeed, I had hoped to ask you if there was anything I could do to help. I love this old city of mine, and I haven't felt this hopeful for its prospects in years. To be brushed off like that, on the threshhold of meeting and talking with the guy I was hoping to work with to get these things done, well, that was bewildering. To find out that it's because you had more important people to talk with doesn't make me feel much better about it.

Nonetheless you are my council member and representative, and I hope we can both agree that the problems facing Disctrict 3 are greater than our ruffled feathers. I am still very much interested in meeting with you about my neighborhood and making it the kind of place people would be proud to raise a family. I'd like to talk about what you are doing, what you plan to do, what you've had success with in the past and what you feel we residents can do to help.

Council Member Kavanaugh's reply, 26 June, 2008

(Edited to protect the innocent)

Thank you Ian for your constructive comments. I apologize if you felt I brushed you off. The breakfast was almost too successful. I felt like a groom at a wedding reception with only having a minute or two to spend with each guess. I really do not remember sitting at a table with one other person for 10 minutes. It was way too busy for that. At 9:40 a.m. I was asked to accompany Mayor Smith, Councilmember Richins and Commander Alonzo to go on a 10 minute tour of the police side of that building since it was on our agenda this week...I came back out at 9:50 am and stayed till almost 10:30 am.

I share your concerns over the issues you identified and am certainly willing to meet with you. If you can, please call my assistant ***** ***** at ***-**** and we will find a time that works for both of our schedules for you to come and meet with me here at the council offices.

I work fulltime at my law practice so we have to be creative with meeting schedules...hope we find a time that works for both of us.

Again I apologize if you felt I slighted you. It was certainly not intentional but the breakfast drew twice the crowd we expected...and that reflects well on our district and our neighbors.

Dennis