Last night I found a last minute babysitter and headed over to Eden Prairie City Hall to witness the 30 minute public open forum before the regular City Council meeting.  I'm glad I did.  Because if I wouldn't have gone and seen with my own eyes what happened, I would have been left to believe this version on the truth on KSTP news last night.

The KSTP News headline reads:  "Residents Blast E.P. Mayor Over Allegations of False Expense"  The reporter says "Residents showed up to blast Mayor Phil Young,"....yes that's true.  Three residents showed up to blast Mayor Phil Young.

The City Council Chambers were full with people standing in the back and the room was AT LEAST 10-1 in support of Mayor Phil Young.

There were three local liberals scheduled to speak.  MN Progressive Project Blogger Tommy Johnson was one.  Tommy spoke first (looking quite dapper in a rare suited appearance.)  He called for the Mayor's resignation, then there was another speaker who did the same.  After both of these speakers there was applause from perhaps seven people around the room. 

There were EIGHT speakers in support of Mayor Young.  After the first speaker addressed the audience in support of Mayor Young there was very loud sustained applause.  No cheers, no talking, just loud sustained applause that seemed to go on for at least a minute.  There was loud applause after each speaker who asked Mayor Young to stand up to these attacks.  Each speaker in support of the Mayor acknowledged that you can't make these types of mistakes with taxpayer dollars at stake, one speaker said that she could easily see how it could happen based on her own experiences with sales reports.  But each of these speaker spoke passionately about the leadership of the Mayor and some spoke with disgust about the behind-the-scenes-political targeting that's going on in City Hall right now.

Former City Council member Jan Mosman also spoke but was relatively neutral in tone-- she was down the speakers list and perhaps tweeked her comments a bit after reading the mood of the room.  Mosman is a part of the Ron Case/Prairie Home Living/Left Side of the Prairie gang.  I heard the lady next to Mosman say, (after the very light applause for Tommy Johnson,) "I don't like the applause."  To which I was thinking, "Yeah, I'll bet you don't."

I guess it was my job to tote a videocamera there and put the whole thing on the internet so that people could see what really happened instead of getting their news from the local media....is there somebody out there who wants to pay me for this?  Yeah, I didn't think so. 

KSTP concludes with a dramatic "follow-the-man-to-the-car-after-the-meeting-moment" where Mayor Young makes "no comment" on the matter.  He can't comment because he's under investigation by the very people feeding this story to the media!

I haven't commented on what's gone on because I don't have the facts, I only know what the Star Tribune has reported and I'm often skeptical of the Star Tribune's reporting most certainly when it comes to a potential "Republican scandal."  I still don't have the facts.  I do know this:  Mike Freeman, the elected Hennepin County Attorney --who is highly respected by all sides and happens to be a Democrat-- fully investigated the matter and said this was a case of "sloppy bookeeping" and nothing more.  So what does the Plymouth police department do?  They decide that's not good enough and put more taxpayer money to waste with further investigation.  Are there political connections between the City of Plymouth and the City of Eden Prairie?  Why are they not satisfied with the findings of the Hennepin County Attorney?

I look forward to all of the facts of this situation coming to light.  When a City Manager signs off on expense reports for three years and then all-of-a-sudden decides to do a "routine" self-audit, I'm skeptical.  Especially a City Manager who's M.O. follows that of EP Schools Superintendent Melissa Krull....

1.  use taxpayer money to select and hire expensive private companies to "survey" the community...these surveys alway seem to reinforce what an excellent job you're doing

2.   use taxpayer money to hire marketing consultants to help you design ballot questions to usurp the will of will of the people when a referendum that you supported fails (community center anyone?)

3.  present yourself to the community as the leader of the organization- when you're staff- (Neal gives the "State of the City" address, Krull heads the EP Chamber of Commerce)

4.  Use taxpayer money for your very own public relations newsletter (the full color inserts into the EP News are Neal's and a huge waste of money- did you notice last month that he promoted his very own custom made acrylic "City Manager" awards that he personally bestowed upon chosen city employees?)

5.  Act behind closed doors, plot against those people who don't approve of the work you're doing or who may be a threat to your power

6. Build political power and wield that power to further entrench yourself into the local government funded by the taxpayers

It's time for somebody to resign....and it isn't Mayor Phil Young.