He really stepped in it this time

Font Size:

By Barb Ickes | Wednesday, August 22, 2007 11:29 PM CDT | () comments

We love a leak. It’s not unusual, believe me, for an alderman to blab something to a reporter that other people would like to keep secret. It happens all the time.

The leak Davenport Alderman Keith Meyer is accused of is different.

For one thing, the reporter didn’t do a very good job of protecting her source. The number of people who were “in the loop” on the proposed multimillion-dollar relocation of an engineering-related firm to Davenport was very small. By referring to “a source close to the negotiations,” she fingered a tiny group of people. The process of elimination was simple from there.

The Dispatch/Rock Island Argus reporter smartly confirmed the leak with officials from the company, eServ. She even got a contractor to confirm he was going to build the new $24 million business in Davenport.

With two independent sources, there was no need to risk identifying a confidential source.

But the fact Meyer has been reprimanded for the leak is one of the least interesting elements of this whole thing.

For starters, the alderman left his own glaringly obvious paper trail, which makes clear his motives for leaking the story. It wasn’t about what’s best for the city. It was all about Meyer’s paranoid distrust of just about anything that happens at City Hall.

There was a time when a person might admire the quirky alderman’s dogged demands on city staff. But that time has come and gone. Meyer’s obsessive enthusiasm for uncovering dirt has kicked up its own ugly dust cloud.

He once sent me a series of boastful e-mails, counting the thousands of questions to which he has demanded answers from city department heads. Yet, when City Administrator Craig Malin asked Meyer whether he was the leak on eServ, the alderman richly replied, “You need to stop harassing people.”

Meyer’s deeply annoying ways only compound his bigger missteps. And he made several in the eServ story.

For one thing, Meyer objects to most any form of public incentive. Many of us share his opposition to pumping public money into already-rich businesses. But he’ll have all sorts of opportunity to object to the eServ deal when it comes before the council.

Since he evidently couldn’t wait, he tried to get the city in trouble. Yes, the City of Davenport — the one he was elected to represent.

Meyer went running to city officials in Rock Island and at the Bi-State Regional Commission to tattle on Davenport for violating a fair-play agreement. He evidently figured Davenport economic development folks were playing dirty by trying to steal eServ away from its current location in Rock Island.

But it turned out Rock Island already had its shot at keeping the company but simply didn’t have the kind of site the company needed. So, Meyer’s tattling attempt fell flat.

The alderman gave an even bigger peek at his cards while in the office of Bi-State’s planning director, Gena McCullough.

“One reason for his opposition (to the eServ deal), shared with Ms. McCullough, was salaries for the positions were relatively high and Alderman Meyer was of the opinion that eServ employees would not choose to live in Davenport,” Malin wrote in a letter detailing an investigation into the leak.

It seems that most of the 240 new jobs promised by eServ would come with an average salary of $61,000. Meyer evidently thinks that Davenport is too big of a dump for anybody making more than minimum wage to choose as a hometown.

I asked McCullough whether Meyer elaborated on which city or cities these stuffy new eServ employees might pick. In one of the most tactful and diplomatic responses to a question I’ve ever heard, she answered, “He shared some things that didn’t seem congruent with representing the city.”

No one could doubt that Meyer cares about Davenport. He clearly does. Since he evidently doesn’t have another job (I’ve asked. He won’t answer), he throws himself into his role as alderman. What is unfortunate is that he lacks the skills needed to effectively convey a position or reasonably police those he distrusts.

This isn’t the first time his leadership flaws have revealed themselves. You might call it a slow leak.

Barb Ickes can be contacted at

(563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com. Comment on this column at qctimes.com.