Thursday, April 26, 2007

 

It's official: "The Mateel will continue to fight the hijack"

an almost immediate response to the Dimmick Ranch/People Productions announcement. [Note: a second version of this came in at 6 last night "with typo corrected." I'm not sure what that typo was, but I swapped the new one in.]

[Thursday, April 26, 2007. Redway, CA.] The request made by the Mateel Community Center to have the courts intervene in a timely manner to stop the take over by Tom Dimmick and People Productions of our twenty-three year old fundraising event Reggae on the River has been denied today. The court’s ruling explains that it cannot establish at this time that a monetary settlement made on the merits of the lawsuit, once that lawsuit has been heard in court, will not successfully mitigate the losses the community center will suffer because of the coordinated actions of the private landowner and the previous production company, People Productions.

It is the Mateel’s position that it will ultimately prevail in the lawsuit and that the referee will rule that the Mateel has a right to hold its event per Mr. Dimmick’s original promise to the Mateel when we entered that contract. It is furthermore the position that the Mateel is the only applicant under the conditional use permit and remains the only applicant until it no longer has a right to possess the property or assigns the permit to another. Until then, the Commission should only be dealing with the Mateel as the applicant. Continuing to treat Mr. Dimmick as an alternate applicant only exacerbates the confusion and frustrates the Mateel in trying to protect the community's asset from being turned over to the hands of private individuals for their own private commercial gain.

The Mateel will continue to fight the hijacking of our equipment, records, infrastructure, intellectual property and investment, made by this community for over twenty-three years, by private individuals wishing to reap the gain. We will discuss the current circumstances with our members on May 7th at 6:00 PM at the Mateel Community Hall in Redway. Until then we hope to see our community at the Thursday, May 3, 2007 planning commission meeting to help us ensure the Mateel permit stays with Reggae on the River.

Comments:
Just chiming in from a sort of sportscaster perspective, I thought the Mateel missed an opportunity at the first Planning Commission meeting. Of course the commission doesn't want to make any decisions it doesn't have to. Had the Mateel stated that they did not authorize the request for an increase in attendance limits and requested that the petition be withdrawn right then and there, it would have forced the Commission to make a decision.
 
The Mateel missed an opportunity way back when they decided to fire people and hire 2b1, without ever approaching the folks who have produced the event forever!!! The public letter in the paper back in October was another mistake, that possible started this whole mess.

Oh well, from what I understand, the Mateel had the opportunity to take a deal that guaranteed them more money than they have ever made in the past....hmmmmm, time for impeachment????? Myabe it's time for board members to stand up to their leader and say no more...no more!!!!!
 
As I've pointed out before, all comments run by me before they're posted. I don't want to spend all day mediating the ongoing anon war between supporters of PP and the Mateel, so I'll allow one response from the other side along this tired line of discourse, then it's the reject button. - Bob
 
Back in October the Mateel did what it thought is should do. It informed the community that the Mateel would not be receiving the money promised to it by People Productions. If Paul Bassis would not have gone on the radio and blown up the announcement and poisoned the atmosphere then maybe the problem would not have been as highly charged has it became. In the past when the Mateel and PP had their differences most of the community knew about it but were not as polarized as this event has become. His antics at the Mateel meeting were just as inflammatory. I say a lot of the animosity that has happened would not be as intense as it has become. You can’t put the genie back into the bottle though. In the past the Mateel have been forced to renegotiate contracts and play along with People Production to the point where board members quit. Some of these people were and are members are held in high regard by the community. The argument from the People production side that the Mateel should not have gone public in October is not fair.
Nobody has ever explained how the Mateel fired PP when Carol Bruno stood in front of over 400 people and effectively terminated her contract. I know it is a tired point to make but it seems that it should be made every time that somebody writes that the Mateel fired PP. Don’t jump on the keyboard and say that this ruling proves that the Mateel fired People Productions because that has not been decided yet. It also has not been decided that People Production has won this lawsuit. It may prove to be the case in the future but as of now the ruling only says that because the Mateel can be financially compensated if the Mateel wins the lawsuit then People Productions can continue to try to steal the event from the Mateel Community Center and by extension steal the event from the community. In the end the law may not say that the event has been legally stolen but the majority of the community feels that way. In my opinion the attitude of Carol Bruno and Paul Bassis have spoiled this community.
 
There was never a promise of money to the Mateel,only a projection.BIG DIFFERENCE.

H.PHUN
 
And a misleading projection it was Howard. They were projected to receive over $200,000 in July, August and September. A big difference is between $200,000 and $16,000 without any warning. There is not that big of a difference being told to expect something and promising it. At least not a BIG DIFFERENCE! Surely PP must have had an idea that The Community Center should not expect $200,000. Especially since they have 23 years of experience that they are so proud of. After 23 years they should know about how much money they have spent and received and what to expect. And what to project. If somebody projected to me that a plumbing job would cost $160 and it ended up costing $2,000 I would think that the plumber was not telling the truth in the beginning and I would be pretty angry. Wouldn’t you?
 
Bob, please add "With all due respect" to the beginning of that last post.
 
I'm not sure which post you mean. And if it's a comment, I don't know that I can edit it.
 
Now it sounds like some one worth responding to.I belive half way through this PP told the mateel that the projection was falling and thats why they were giving the offer of a guarantee of $200,000.I think the mateel was thinking that there was a bigger piece of pie at the end.It didn't happen.Thats when the mateel cried fowl.I also belive that PP gave the mateel $100,000 to pay bills after the event because the projection was falling.That was suposed to cover the law enforcement bill that was stated in the paper.Right now I think it would be best If the Mateel step aside this year,and sit down after, and truly work this out.I love the Mateel.It has be part of my life from day one.I have givin thousands of hours for free to the mateel.served on the Board twice.The Mateel won't die if they don't do reggae.One more thing.Can a person be for the mateel and for people prodution? Thanks 4:24 pm H. phun
 
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