Wasted Potential

Today is Monday, April 5th. Columbia elections are Saturday, April 24th. I still don’t know where The Rouse Project money is coming from. 

Perhaps they’ve sent out an explanatory email but I just didn’t get it? 

In the meantime, while I’ve been waiting, I’ve been brainstorming a list of possible reasons why an organization created to influence the election of Columbia’s largest HOA won’t release their financial information. Here goes:

• If voters knew who the donors were, they wouldn’t vote for RP candidates.
• Donors gave only with the agreement that their names would not revealed.
• They think it isn’t any of your business.
• They think money isn’t important.

That’s about all I’ve got. You?

None of those hold water for me. If money and transparency weren’t important, The Rouse Project literature would not be filled with references to both. 

Now we get to The Rouse Project endorsed candidates. I am loathe to criticize them in any way because, for the most part, I don’t know them. But, to be fair, I’m right back at the money issue again. Members of the CA Board will need to make important decisions involving large sums of money and we expect them to do so with the transparency required by the office they hold.

Consider this:

A) Candidates know where the money comes from but are perfectly fine not telling voters.

B) Candidates don’t know where the money comes from and don’t think that’s important.

No matter how I look at it, either point of view is disqualifying for anyone wishing to be elected to represent the Columbia community. Someone who won’t tell you what you need to know before an election certainly won’t be compelled to do so afterwards.

To top it off, putting Rouse’s name on a policy of deliberate subterfuge dishonors his work and his memory.

The longer this goes on, the more disappointed I get. To take the valuable goals of diversity, change, and responsiveness and mire them in an inexplicable lack of transparency is such a waste of potential. Telling the truth matters. 

If it is necessary to withhold the truth in order to win, you do not deserve to win.