On November 20, 2008 Minnesota Public Radio's (MPR) attorney, Salo Ale of Faegre & Benson, filed its Memorandum of Law response with the Rice County District Court in the matter of the Petition To Redress Breach of Trust brought by SaveWCAL. The documents are available for download at the end of this posting.
Among other things, MPR tries to make the case that SaveWCAL could have placed the WCAL matter before a District Court earlier — a claim that SaveWCAL expected and will directly address in our own submission — but MPR "reveals" this information in an almost unbelievable way.
They submit a hard copy of SaveWCAL's Presentation to the Saint Paul HRA taken straight from the SaveWCAL web site!
MPR had a number of choices of how to try to show that SaveWCAL could have taken the WCAL matter to District Court. Instead of using independent sources, they have placed before a judge information produced by SaveWCAL's own attorney, Michael McNabb! In his remarks McNabb explains that the law does not authorize the use of housing and redevelopment bonds to finance the purchase of a radio station. And MPR included the list of entries that document MPR's financing story as well as reader comments as a part of their submission of this posting as an exhibit.
SaveWCAL couldn't be happier that MPR is paying their attorneys to place our information squarely before Judge Borene! Thank you, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR)!! (We've known they've been reading our web site for a while now.)
As expected, MPR also attempts to show that SaveWCAL does not have the legal standing to bring our Petition To Redress Breach of Trust. This is in spite of the fact that Judge Wolf gave SaveWCAL legal standing as a representatives of the WCAL donors in his Court Order of October 2007 in which he also ordered a Special Master Investigation of the WCAL Charitable Trust.
Even if St. Olaf and MPR could silence SaveWCAL, they could not prevent the Court from exercising its statutory role as the guardian of the beneficiaries of a charitable trust.
The documents submitted by MPR and available here for download include:
- Letter Memorandum In Support Of Motion To Dismiss, Or, In The Alternative, For Summary Judgement [PDF, 27 pages]
- Letter Memorandum Exhibits [PDF, 21 pages]
- Affidavit of Thomas J. Kigin [PDF, 4 pages]
- Affidavit of Eleasala V. Ale [PDF, 2 pages]
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
MPR…I would fire your attorneys for what I have read thus far on these pages. Lacks polish, effective word management and FACTS.
Having MPR join forcefully in the Breach of Trust Hearings may provide more public benefit than anyone now imagines; consider what might come about if the General Public learns through additional, possible investigative disclosures that – while at the moment, our auto fuel is at $1.69.9/gallon and "we" are trying to economize – "their guys; the public radio executives" (MPR) are all apparently in the "Escalade Class" of consumption, with "$4.00/gallon fuel budgets". If that seems a bit obscure to understanding, take a try at "comprehension" of the MPR Executive Salaries Budget – if you can get to have a glimpse of it. Uh-huh; another "fund raising" coming up; "legacy funding programs", and more Charitable Trusts are possible, here – too.