Read it on-line here:
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2014/10/don_samuels_on_hot_dog-gate_faulty_reporting_and_his_priorities.php
I also pasted it in below:
Don Samuels on Hot-Dog-gate, Media Beefs and his priorities
Over the weekend we had the chance to talk at length with Don Samuels, the
former Minneapolis City Council member and mayoral candidate who's now running
for school board.
The immediate reason we called Samuels was to talk about the controversy
generated by Samuels's decision to call 911 last Thursday on a north
Minneapolis hot dog giveaway organized by Neighborhoods Organizing for Change
that he thought was an illegally operating business. But we also took the
opportunity to get his thoughts on a recent investigative report that portrayed
his campaign in a not-positive light, and more generally, we asked what his
priorities would be if he's elected next month.
Regarding "Hot Dog Gate," Samuels says, "I was the head of regulatory services
for years, and in that role, that's when I noticed that there were actually
barbecue sales on West Broadway sidewalks in the direct vicinity of where that
activity was taking place."
"I thought it was the same outfit, and I know they had been warned before, and
I had an attitude of, these guys are just defiant," Samuels adds. "I support
NOC -- we have the lowest voter turnout on the North Side and it would be
foolish for me, in my neighborhood, to do something like that. It was totally
an accident. I apologized -- I drove back to the [NOC] office on my way from
south Minneapolis when I heard about it, and knocked on the door and tried to
apologize to the group, but they didn't want to disturb their meeting."
Though he acknowledges his mistake, Samuels says there are legitimate concerns
about illicit businesses operating in that part of town.
"The economic development of Broadway is a big issue for the city, and we want
to support the small businesses that are struggling there," he says. "They open
and close with regularity, so having a business operating without regulations
and of course the health concerns.... The city is working really hard on this."
Our conversation then pivoted to a recent Investigative Fund report detailing
the surprising amount of national money that's pouring into his school board
campaign.
Samuels says he doesn't appreciate that the journalist who wrote the piece,
Sarah Lahm, didn't contact him for comment, and alleged that the original
version of the article contained factual errors about how school board
campaigns are financed.
Specifically, the article claimed that California billionaire and Teach for
America board member Arthur Rock gave $10,000 to Samuels's campaign. But
Samuels says that'd be illegal, as school board candidates can't take more than
$1,000 from individual donors. (Outside organizations can spend additional
funds on a candidate's behalf, but that money can't go directly to a candidate
and such "independent expenditures" can't be coordinated with a campaign,
Samuels's volunteer staff explained to us.)
"One of the very accurate things that was said [in Lahm's report] is that I
have out-raised my opponents more than four to one in local support, in
individual contributions, which is how my campaign is financed," Samuels says.
"As far as our campaign is concerned, I don't know anything about the other
issues. I think there's a lot of dark money coming into the campaign on both
sides."
Lahm's piece suggests Samuels is receiving substantial outside support from
people like Rock because he's more amenable to the privatization of public
education than other candidates, but Samuels says he's "running for the public
school board. I'm not on a charter school board, I haven't tried to be on one."
"Charter schools exist, they are a given, they are also public, so to whatever
degree I would have influence it would be to make them better," he continues.
"I'm not trying to privatize public schools, and by the way some charters are
ill-performing, they're not meeting the standards, and I think the freedom they
have to form should be equal with the freedom to shut them down."
Regarding his broader philosophy of education, Samuels says, "For me, it's not
about the latest trend."
"I've raised a son in six cities across the country in the lowest income areas
of town," he continues. "That's where I've chosen to live. And no matter where
I've lived, I've seen his friends, bright eyed and bushy tailed, get stuck in
failure. Some died, some went to prison, many failed, so this is about
life-and-death stories and it has an urgency for me that it doesn't have for
anybody else in the race."
"Let the schools do their part in making this the last poor generation of
poverty for these children," Samuels adds. "I'm very, very determined and
inspired to make whatever change is necessary to reverse [the achievement gap
in Minneapolis]. This is a historical trend, it's not something new that we
started to measure."
Samuels's website suggests he supports longer school years and longer school
days for struggling schools, more local control regarding how educational
standards are determined and met, and better pay for teachers, among other
positions.