acclaro - forgive my ignorance but, what is MMF?

TonyB,it means Moving Middletown Forward, comprised of the city law director, a few other city employees, and a unique inner circle of Middletown's 'finest', the chosen ones, who work for city leadership, and who city leadership drum up money in the range of about $50,000 for select candidates they want to control as council members. I'm sure Mr. Presta could add further illumination, but at a high level, it is a handful of people who make sure there is no rain on their party in the city of Middletown regarding who gets what jobs, bids, favors, special interests, and other considerations. You might think of it TonyB, as Middletown's ruling class. Some call it the 'dark side' establishment.

TonyB- adding to acclaro's post, it is my opinion that the MMF'ers control the direction of this town, behind the scenes, by selecting, financing and directing the people they place on council, the school board, the committees, who gets in the city building as they direct Gilleland and others on hiring and who gets the benefit of this so-called "business friendly" town as they dictate who gets to set up shop here and who doesn't through court jester Marty Kohler, Planning Director. They are a cancer, a scourge, a plague on the health of this town. They are the people's worst enemy as to city government working for the people. They set the agenda for the town's direction. I believe Ken Cohen, President of Cohen Brothers Scrap operation is listed as President of MMF. Dick Slagel could be another member (not listed on the website). As acclaro mentions, perhaps Mike Presta could fill you in on the specifics and who are other members of this "town destroying" group. If you go to their website, it paints a glorious picture that appears to be a front as to what they are really about. It also is very dated as it has some members that are no longer in the picture like Marconi, Armbruster, Schiavone and Leslie Ford on council and Bill Murphy as the Econ. Dev. Director.....long gone.

These are the people (as well as past city leaders) who have contributed (with some help from the economy along the way) to the total devastation of this town, taking it from a once thriving city with good schools, plenty of good paying jobs, decent housing, ample shopping, friendly, prideful people, decent city government with a semblence of competency to it, and a city that offered hope as opposed to what you see now. Hell, MMF President Cohen doesn't even live in town....lives in Maineville, but runs one of his businesses here.

Indications are people like Mulligan, Becker, Picard, Allen, Schiavone, Gilleland, Kohler, Landen, some school board members, past council and past school board members.....all bought and paid for, have a hidden agenda that is inner circle driven, make decisions that favor special interests rather than the general populace, take direction from and are puppets for the MMF. They must be because they sure as hell aren't doing the decision making for the benefit of the majority of the citizens who are outside looking in. JMO

Les Landon is involved in the political behind the scenes manuverings and in doing so is violating the City personnel policies he is charged with enforcing. Les has he nose so far up Becker and Picard's butts his face is starting to look like....well you know where I am going with this.

TonyB wrote: acclaro - forgive my ignorance but, what is MMF?

Mr. B.: The saga of MMF is completely documented within the archives of this very forum!!! If you are truly interested--and anyone concerned with the problems of our fair city should be--I suggest you set aside a good deal of time to read the following in chronological order. Do not merely scan this info!!! Read it carefully.

Begin with this thread:

http://www.middletownusa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1077 But don’t be fooled!! The thread starts out as a discussion/speculation on the mayor’s then upcoming 2009 State-of-the-City speech. However, the thread soon takes a twist with Impala SS’s (the late Tom Rapp) 11 Mar 2009 at 2:29pm post introducing “Moving Middletown Forward”.

(An interesting side note is that the mayor’s speech that yearis much the same as every year: Bright Future; no problems--just accomplishments; downtown is critical & this year’s scheme is the key; etc.; don‘t listen to the naysayers.)

Then go here:

http://www.middletownusa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1090

Then go here:

http://www.middletownusa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1803

Then finally go here:

http://www.middletownusa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2246

In conclusion, regardless of the facts indicating that city administration from the City Manager on down were involved in illegal electioneering and conspiracy, the legendary apathy of Middletown’s voters prevailed. Very few people seemed to care, and the MMF-backed candidates swept the elections. We remain the city of a “Brighter future” with no problems, great accomplishments, risky schemes, and critical downtown renewal at the expense of other areas. Forbes is wrong. Several of the winning city council candidates had campaign donations of TENS of thousands of dollars for their piddling $5K/year seats on the council of a dying city, and we are still waiting on “alien” to provide evidence of his "spaced out" contentions.

TonyB, I will respond to a large topic of discussions which focus upon malfeasance and potential wrongdoing in Middletown by city leaders and council members, but I have madeno effort to followup, extract facts, status, or otherwise. To begin, a PAC is centered predominately upon federal elections, so I surmise MMF would not fall under the guise of a PAC. I seriously doubt if any effort at teh state level or complaint has been filed. Like most states, these efforts are generally useless and yeild very little results. FootNote: See Vietnam Vet's reference of the Middletown Cemetary mediation efforts and the camoaign led by Vivian Moon which yielded little more than an effort to clean it would occur with more outstanding issues than determination.

TonyB wrote: Thanks to all who have educated on the MMF issue. Special thanks to Mr. Presta for referrencing the previous threads when this was occurring. First let me state that after reading the law abour CICs, I'm glad I decided against law as a career!!! Damn, that is a confusing set of bs. I have so many questions about this I'm not even sure where to start. Since starting somewhere is better than nothing, here goes:    1. Has there ever been a determination about the difference between Middletown Moving Forward, CIC; and Moving Middletown Forward which could only be characterized as a Political Action Committee?     2. Is Middletown Moving Forward a closed group in the sense that they ask you to join instead of you asking them if you could join?      3. Could someone clear up my confusion concerning conflict of interest betwwen MMF,CIC and government officials voting on issues or contracts that members of this organization might benefit from?      4. Has there now or ever been any investigations for criminal wrongdoing in this matter?      5. Has there now or ever been an investigation into how a PAC document was placed in an information dissemination rack in front of the city managers office.      I have more questions; however, this is a pretty good start. I must tell you in all honesty that I wish I had remained blissfully ignorant about all of this; problem is now that I know, I am not pleased. If any group of citizens wish to organize for the purpose of advancing an agenda that they see as beneficial to this city; I applaud their effort. If, however; any group has violated the law in this pursuit I take offense.

TonyB wrote: I would be more than willing to meet with you to discuss this matter. The time would be at your convenience; as to the place, somewhere downtown would be best for me, the library or perhaps the newest and the hip place to meet, the PAC.

Mr. B,

As to place, anywhere in Middletown would be fine with me. As to time, Friday evenings after six and Monday evenings after eight are difficult. This would seem to rule out PAC, as my understanding is that they are only open to the public one Friday evening per month. Also, due to health reasons, I cannot stroll around and talk (at least not for a very long).

The library would be fine, assuming we could use one of the meeting rooms so that we could talk without disturbing other patrons who may wish to read or study.

Any of Middletown’s restaurants or taverns would also be okay with me. I am retired, so it would be easy for me to accommodate your schedule outside of the Monday and Friday evening periods that I mentioned above.

Mr. B,

Believe it or not, I just made another appointment for 6 pm Tuesday.  Also, Councilman Smith's "Coversation with Council" is Tuesday evening.

OK , but I'll likely be late...around 7.

Seems Becker is at it again. This time he definitely has a conflict. Bet his inside man Les Landon will help him keep he council seat.