NMTF Controversy Over New Website (Here We Go Again, But Where Are We Going?)

Stock Photo By John Hoff

After being up for less than a day, the shiny new Northside Marketing Task Force website (with the new website smell) has already generated controversy, and I'm not talking about nit-picky little remarks people are making on the comment threads of this blog post, click here. Mike Kestner, who believes himself to be still the Vice Chair of NMTF, with Jerry Moore as the Chair, has fired off an email demanding the website be taken down...

Here is the text of the email, sent to Susan Bendickson, as follows:

Susan,

Please remove the incomplete and unapproved website northminneapolis.com immediately. I am a current NMTF board member (as even the website lists me), and I was not given an opportunity to vote to approve this website. I do not want my name or the NMTF exposed to a lawsuit. In it's (sic) current form, it is a promotional site, not a news site. No release forms were signed with regards to any individuals who are pictured or mentioned on the site. This includes myself.

Mike Kestner
Vice Chair
Northside Marketing Task Force

On a roll, and completely innocent of the correct way to write a possessive "it," Mike then fired off a letter to Jules Inda, the notoriously smoking hot spouse of Pat Carney of the Carney group, as follows:

Susan Bendickson claims that it is The Carney Group that is responsible for posting this NMTF-unapproved website.

This is a formal request to take it down immediately. Only you and I had access to the site's domain administration, as I recall. No legal NMTF vote with quorum has changed this access. The current legal full board of the NMTF had not been consulted at all by The Carney Group, Amalgam, Georgianna or Susan prior to this action.

Until further notice, I ask that you allow for the NMTF (the owner of this site) to make it's (sic) necessary resolutions according to legal board policies, and forego The Carney Group's interest in seeing this work in the public eye.

Thank you,
Mike Kestner

ADDENDUM: February 6, 2011. This blog post was written before I and many others in North Minneapolis discovered what a disreputable con man character Don Allen is. I would advise anybody: Do not trust Don Allen. Seek further information about Don Allen from various online sources before having any contact with him.

In the meantime, IBNN blogger Don Allen continues trying to get his board seat back on NMTF. The latest word is Don's being told he filed his grievance too late. But you have to wonder...why would Don want his seat back anyway? Is he just a glutton for punishment?

Now, I know that some people think I shouldn't air all this NMTF conflict on my blog, but I think the colorful bare knuckle politics of NoMi is actually part of the fun of this neighborhood and attracts a certain creative and adventurous kind of personality.

And, hey, it's good for ratings! Not as good as video of a crack house burning, but still...pretty good.