Failure to disclose
To the editor:
Ken Gooderham’s criticism in another newspaper of some very good people out on Fort Myers Beach who happen to oppose the county’s re-nourishment project there lacked one very important disclosure. Ken failed to disclose that he and his wife are being paid $16,125 by Lee County government to write those letters to the editor and promote Ray Judah’s re-nourishment plan.
Ken was hawking what he called “impartial information” on the plan and claimed the folks opposing this particular re-nourishment plan, who include myself, are “a few vitriolic voices” and are misleading people with “a mountain of misinformation.”
As a paid representative of county government, Ken should have disclosed his job as the county’s contracted flack on the re-nourishment plan. By not doing that, Ken himself has badly misled people, posing as just another supporter of the plan, when that’s not what he is at all. He’s a paid publicist for the plan, and folks should take that into consideration.
Surely, as a former News-Press editorial writer, Ken knows the value of complete disclosure.
Lee Melsek
Fort Myers Beach