Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Board wanted site. Marla just negotiated.

[Mark to Rachel]
While I appreciate that you are interested in facts, I am afraid you will not get them from Marla on this topic. Facts may be provided by the people involved in that meeting (assuming they will not be blacklisted by the District for speaking up) like Mark Quehrn from Perkins Coie, Al Morgan from Reid Middleton, Deb Ladd from AMEC, and Jack Dinniene from Northwest Valuation Services. Marla should offer them assurances that they, or their respective companies, will not be negatively impacted for confirming the validity of my statement.

Minutes from that meeting will confirm that we all agreed that the site would be too expensive to mitigate the soils issue even at the lesser amount of $3.3 million.

To jog Marla's memory, it was one of the few meetings that I attended on this topic - in part because that meeting was supposed to be the final nail in the coffin for this transaction. I sat to her right and we both had our backs to the window. Mark Quehrn sat between us. It took place in the main conference room at Reid Middleton in Everett, Washington. I will check my PDA and get back to you with a date and time.

Thank you for your interest in seeking the truth.

[Marla to Rachel]
On May 10, 2005, two board members met with AMEC and Reid Middleton to talk directly with them regarding their analysis of the site. Following that meeting the board instructed me to proceed with the negotiations to purchase the site.

I’ve never been to the Reid Middleton offices in Everett.

[Mark to Marla]
So, which two board members attended that meeting?

[Marla to Mark]
(The sound of crickets chirping)

Interesting turn of events here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is it a common and legal practice for Marla to proceed with multi million dollar negotiations with just a verbal direction from two board members (if her assertion is actually true)?

This seems really wrong to me and and smells (oops) seems like a very dangerous business practice.

Anonymous said...

The board does not act unless Marla tells them to. I have been to board meetings and cannot imagine such a collection of primates deciding something like this on their own.

I think Marla is deflecting to save her job. She believes she is the district and it would deflate her ego to discover otherwise.

Anonymous said...

If two board members went to Reid Middleton; I think THEIR personal finances should be investigted as well as Marla's.

As Deep Throat said, "Follow the Money."

ESD15.org said...

My notes reveal who attended the meeting, but will Marla tell me?

I can say one thing for certain, no one would have been convinced to buy this site based upon the outcome of the May 10th meeting.

I will post the response - if I ever receive it.

Anonymous said...

Mark -

Did you ever receive a response? It still blows me away that Marla is authorized to negotiate a multi million dollar (and ecologically unsound) property deal with only verbal notification from two board members. I would like to see a statement from the two board members (if we will ever know who they are) saying they instructed her to do so. Is that a document that can be requested?