City Leaders Fuming About Stanek 35W Bridge Video
When my colleague Caroline Lowe got a tip that city leaders were fuming about a training video produced by Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek, she did what all good journalists do. She asked for all e-mails sent regarding the video. What she got is fascinating reading, which I recommend you puruse at your leisure.The e-mails include a city council member’s: “This. Is. Disgusting.”
Mayor R.T. Rybak’s comment, “It seemed his ego got in the way of getting the job done.”
And Rocco Forte (the emergency management coordinator) writing, “Stanek is truly a legend in his own mind.”
I’d like to remind the city staff that Gmail accounts are free, and if you want to talk smack about other public officials, it’s probably wise to avoid using your city e-mail address. City e-mail is courtesy of the taxpayers, and thus is public information.
There’s also been a dustup over my colleague, WCCO-TV Anchor Don Shelby, acting as narrator of the video. Don’s narrated tons of law enforcement videos in the past, including a documentary by the Minnesota County Attorneys Association about Meth in Minnesota. I asked him about the ethics of all this, and if he thought the script for the Sheriff’s video was a “big wet kiss to Rich Stanek,” and you can watch that interview here.
If you care about this story, you really should take twenty-six minutes and watch the entire video. We’re working on uploading it by Friday morning to wcco.com/links. You can decide for yourself whether it would be useful to you if you were a police officer or fire fighter somewhere else in the country.