For Richard Boon to talk with me and give me a statement, he said I had to call off my Freedom of Information Act request or he would send it to legal and potentially sue us over the interview with Robert H. While I don't believe he has a right to ask me not to file under the FOI, and while I don't believe he could sue over the article since it was stated the responses were based on an interview, it's a fight I don't really want to take on -- especially when only around 100 people even read the original article. Plus, I wanted to hear his side of the story, and I published that in my retraction that I mentioned at the top of this thread.
So I have one involved party (Robert) who believes there was miscommunication, and another involved party that won't let me look for possible miscommunications without a fight and threats of a lawsuit.
As I mentioned in the retraction, Boon's say is final in the situation. I have published a retraction, taken down the original article, taken Richard Boon's statement and that's all I plan to do at this moment.
Allison, this is very disturbing. While Mr. Boon did convey to me that an FOIA request could prove to be taxing for his staff never once did he ever give me the indication that he would use that as some kind of bargaining tool or a threat. I looked it up and that office frequently answers requests from environmental groups. He also didn't strike me as the kind of man who had anything to hide or who would threaten a lawsuit unless he felt he and his staff had been seriously wronged.
What does all this say about the Robert Hinderliter, the Environmental Liason for the PWNA and his ablility to represent PWNA contractors with the Authorities?
You stated here that only about 100 people even read the original article. Sounds like it made the rounds enough to get the attention of surrounding county officials.
This is how just a little bit of deception and a lack of integrity, can damage our industry, many times in ways that we will never know or hear about.
We are being made to look like bumbling fools and liars.
The Nevada FOIA produced email after email from PWNA authorized representatives where the officials were:
1) Asked to take a position supporting the PWNA platform (using UAMCC logo deceitfully claiming a partnership with PWNA that didn't exist)
2) Badgered over and over again by Hinderliter and Gamble when they didn't accept those proposals.
3) Threatened: Gamble went over their heads from the state level to the Federal Regional level and threatened the state officials prompting one official to say "lies from Jim Gamble" in regarding to the emails and threats.
4) Decieved: Lied to an the Nevada State Official who made it perfectly clear via emails that his appearance at the Garage Cleaning Event would require that the appearance be free and open to Nevada residents. Gamble told the official it was open, yet posted on boards that if I or anyone else here in Nevada attended without being invited we would be kept out via security guards.
5) Lied to: Both of them claimed via email that I had somehow caused the local officials to decline the invitation to the event because of a conflict of interest. The local officials denied this, yet Gamble and Tornebene (another PWNA environmental chair) still to this day make that false claim.
After the event Gamble and Tornebene made the claim the Ron and I disrupted the event and went so far as to claim they had it on video, even going so far as adding the video showed us "running and hiding".
When asked to show that video they ignored the request, yet kept on with the lies about the disruption.
Allison, YOU WERE THERE. We had lunch with you.
You KNOW that claim is false, yet you have done nothing to counter those false accusations, and let contractors know the truth.
Ron bought flowers for you at the event and had them delivered because you were sick and yet kept on working. If there was any disruption at all it could have been when the flowers came in, but I have never heard any complaints about the flowers so I just assumed they delivered them to your hotel room.
We never entered the event room even though we were repeatedly asked to by the Dodge Truck rep in the hallway.
I did take a picture from an open door in a hallway and sent it to John T. I texted him to let him know we were in the Hotel if he wanted to meet with us later and he called me a liar. So I snapped the picture from the hall to show him we were there.
You KNOW the truth about this matter. I am calling your integrity into question here Allison. Why would you let these lies go on when you have a first hand knowledge that they are just fabricated?
How many more lies can you clear up if you just would?
Now is your chance Allison. Please do the right thing and let people know the lies that Jim and John have spread about that event.
(Sorry. I crafted a long response, then when I hit submit I was logged out of the system so it didn't post. I will try again.)
I agree, Ted, for the most part. (Not with Chris' statement, but with what you are saying).
As for the "framework" of the article. Let me explain again. Robert contacted me and said he wanted me to publish his response to the situation. He wanted it to go somewhere besides the BBS. I've known Robert for 20 years, I wanted to help, so I wrote it and put it on my site. (I was not paid by ANYONE to do this, so basically I put a lot of extra work and heartache on myself for free.) I came up with the questions, based on feedback that people were posting on the various forums. I posted it on our site (not in the magazine) and promoted it only on the various BBs, so as to only draw attention from those who were likely already aware of the situation. The information I reported was wrong, and as soon as I figured that out, I worked night and day to try to do what I could to "fix" it as best I could.
Chris wants to know why I haven't reported on why Robert is lying. I can't report on WHY if Robert doesn't believe he was lying. He says there was miscommunication. Honestly, even if I read through all the correspondence, I probably can't prove he was lying because I can't prove how he perceived certain information, or how OC perceived certain information. I do know that the OC was aware of the document that was posted. I believe, however, that the OC never intended for it to be more than something for the PWNA membership.
Let me clarify, I'm not saying that the OC is lying. I don't think that Boon made the comments about cancelling the FOIA request because he had something to hide. (I don't know that for sure, but that wasn't the sense I was getting.) I think they are a small department that was overwhelmed by the response they got, some which in his words were "quite heated," he was worried about the safety of his associate, and they just wanted it to go away. I mention the FOIA request cancellation now only to explain why I didn't pursue this further.
Finally, do I REALLY want to find out the truth? I think I already clarified the key elements: OC contacted the PWNA with plans for a workshop only, the BMPs were not to be changed, and the PWNA BOD was not aware of what was happening behind the scenes. Do I want to do an article on who lied to whom? Not when only a little over 100 people read any of this on our site. Most of our readers don't have a clue about any of this, and frankly don't really care. They are busy running their businesses and look to eClean for ways to do that.
As for the journalist comment, that term ("journalist") keeps getting thrown around, and frankly, I don't know that it's the correct term. I'm a writer. I minored in "writing." I realized very quickly that I did not like journalism and I got out of that department in college. I do a lot of research, I do a lot of interviews, and I write a lot of articles based on that information. But they are generally not "journalistic" in nature. I've been asked time and again to cover controversial topics, and I've said time and again I don't want to be an investigative reporter, and that is not the mission of eClean. I made an exception when I published the interview with Robert because he asked me to, and we've known each other for 20 years. And it came back to bite me.
Allison, could you clarify where these "heated" calls came from. Leaving this dangling like it is gives impression that we (UAMCC, or PWI members) could have been on the end of one of these "heated" calls. By using the word "safety" it also plays right into the false claims that some have made about Ron "threatening". I, personally try to keep most, if not ALL my communications that aren't in person, in email format so that there can't possibly be any "miscommunication" that isn't fixed quickly and documented.
I will warn you in advance. I had this same conversation with Mr. Boon. I KNOW where these phone calls came from because he told me. I also know the nature of the calls.
So I ask you now. Who made those calls and what was the nature of the "danger" to his assistant. Stop using vague claims that leave the door open for false conclusions.
Also, once again you claim the PWNA was not aware of what was going on behind the scenes. After what happened in Nevada what possible excuse could they have for not keeping a tighter reign on Robert and making sure more lies, distortions and threats weren't being made. I sent the PWNA president a digital copy of the 400+ pages of emails to them a long time before Orange County happened in hopes that someone there would have the sense to at least monitor future discussions with the Authorities.
At this point they KNOW what happened in Orange County. They KNOW their failure to at least monitor Robert and Jim has now caused authorities in TWO states to call them (and our industry as whole, by extension) liars.
When we met with Ty after all this he emailed me and asked me let him know what was wrong with the PWNA bmps and what our issues were with Robert. That was over a month ago. He emailed me and told me he would get back with me in a week. I emailed him again two days ago and have yet to hear anything back.
The PWNA cannot make the claim that they were "unaware" anymore. That is just simply a false statement at this point.
What I have seen is a lot of false accusations and lies posted on this board about me and others. So I could completely understand why he didn't want to respond here, or elsewhere. It's an ugly place over here. And so yes, that played into my decision. Plus, he believed I could write the response more clearly, and that made sense to me. He said he posted the "BMPs" on here to share information but had no intention to respond to personal attacks. I understood that as well -- although I don't think he should have posted the information here, even if it was correct.
Doug, I'm sorry but I don't know what other "reasons" you are implying.
Alison, this is another misleading statement. As far as I know I've only seen one claim that you have made about my "lying". That claim was based on my firm opinion that you are "bought and paid for" by the PWNA and your "writing" as opposed to "journalism" is slanted towards the PWNA based on the relationship you have being paid by them. Is what you are doing now and what you have been doing just further proof of that?
Why didn't you interview any of us about the Garage cleaning event and the horrible situation surrounding it? Why didn't you interview us about the Orange County disaster when we found out what really happened?
If you were interested in educating contractors and helping them succeed, it would appear to me that BOD and Liaison's lying to Authorities would be a story worth getting out to the contractors before more harm was done.
If you were interested in contractors wouldn't it be worth letting them know what their Org Membership dues were being used to do?
If you were interested in contractors wouldn't it be more appropriate to also interview contractors who have been on the other end of these lies just to get a fair assessment of both sides?
If you were interested in educating contractors wouldn't it make sense to straighten out claims that one one group "disrupted" an event where you were present and you KNOW that is false?
Allison, your actions speak louder than your words.
It's time to make a choice. Are you really interested in contractors, or are you willing to keep the lies you know about close to your chest for fear of losing your job?
Do the right thing and show that you are what you claim you are.
Please.
