Lies and Deception

We already know from a previous post that the Department of Parks & Recreation intentionally created a survey of park users that would produce skewed results. The results were designed to support their efforts to waste taxpayers dollars on a park that nobody wants, is not needed and would destroy natural habitats unique to New York City. I was also recently confronted by their feeble attempts at hiding the truth.

In 2007 the parks department held their first series of community listening sessions. After one of those sessions, Gary Comorau (the current president of the Highland Park-Ridgewood Reservoir Alliance) asked Kevin Quinn, of parks Capital Projects, for a copy of their Powerpoint slide presentation. Kevin quickly obliged and images from that presentation have been used in handout by HPRRA. Another set of community listening sessions were carried out this year. On June 19th I sent an email to Kevin Quinn asking for a copy of the Powerpoint presentation that was used for the meeting at Oak Ridge on March 16th. I never heard back from him and, at the final listening session held at the end of June, I spoke with park administrator Debby Kuha. A few people in attendance at that meeting asked if parks could post the slide presentation online. I told Ms. Kuha that I had requested it from Kevin but that he never responded. She told me that if I send him another note and copied her, she'd make sure I received a copy. That email was sent out on July 1st and I still have not received any response from either Ms. Kuha or Mr. Quinn.

Subsequent to my conversation with Debby, I learned that Conor Greene from the "Forum" also asked Ms. Kuha for a copy of the presentation. He wanted the presentation because it contains the results of the original survey, not the new, phony survey. He was told by Debby that the results were not part of that slide presentation. I attended the March 16th meeting and the survey results were, in fact, part of the presentation. The results were presented by Melissa Hicks. Either Ms. Kuha has a very bad memory or she outright lied to Conor, knowing that he would learn the truth about the two different surveys. I realize that Ms. Kuha and other employees of the Department of Parks & Recreation read this blog, so I will ask the question publicly and let you know if I receive a response:

Debby - Do you have any intention of sending me a copy of the requested presentation, as you promised, or will I have to use legal means to acquire this public document?

UPDATE (7/22):
Today I received an email from Debby Kuha. She assured me that she'd ask Kevin "again", plus, she is "not a liar". Just to be clear, I did not say that Ms. Kuha WAS a liar, only that her response to Conor was either the result of bad memory or intentionally misrepresenting the truth.

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