Washington quotes Niland as stating “I want to be proactive about protecting the taxpayers, and I am going to step up and do the right thing”. Clearly Cortney Niland agrees that the whole dais drama was centered on her failure to sit where her space on the dais had been traditionally reserved. In addition, Niland is quoted by the local daily as stating that the issue “is not the taxpayers’ fault”.
I wholeheartedly agree with her; it is not the taxpayers’ fault.
I have been accused of singling Cortney Niland out in this fiasco. Many of you have let me know that you are angry in what some of you perceive as me attacking Niland on this issue. The fact is that every single one of my articles on this issue have pointed out that Cortney Niland was the one that was not sitting where she should have been sitting and thus the fiasco ensued.
There have been rumors and much innuendo as to what the cause of Niland’s refusal to sit at her seat is. However, there is no documentation or facts to show what the actual cause is. Thus the only fact we all had to work with was the fact that it was Niland who was out of place and thus she was the cause of the whole disaster. This is the only fact we have to work with.
Guess what? She also agrees with me.
She is quoted as both agreeing that she will move back to her seat and that it was not the taxpayers’ fault. Clearly I was right the whole time when I pointed out that the issue was Niland insistence on not sitting where she should be. By returning to her seat she has validated my argument.
Additionally the issue of whether the dais is modular and capable of simply been modified has also been proven to be wrong as well. Had the dais been modular, as alleged by Ann Morgan Lilly in a recent news report, then there would have been no need to spend close to $7,000 to setup a working station for Ann Morgan Lilly. You see a modular station would have simply required unplugging Niland’s original set of equipment and moving it to one of the so-called empty stations. Clearly this did not happen and thus the argument that the dais is modular has been proven false as well.
At the time of my writing this blog no other news media outlet had reported Niland’s sudden change of heart however I have no reason to doubt Diana Washington’s reporting on this issue. Hopefully the musical chairs debacle is now over and we can focus on other more pressing needs for the city.