French, Mielke mislead

In response to two letters, one written by Al French (“Mielke testimony distorted,” Feb. 10) and the other by Todd Mielke (“Article misleads on issue,” Feb. 17), I see a familiar pattern of deceit and deception from these two commissioners.

In the first letter, French nips away at The Spokesman-Review reporter’s and my heels for “blatantly misleading” the readers by implying Mielke “testified in favor of a new fee for land use appeals.” The TVW video of the legislative hearing doesn’t lie. Mielke did testify in favor of the fee. Quote: “As the senator mentioned, this bill does impose a filing fee. We think that’s reasonable.” Fully half of Mielke’s testimony is on the $400 fee because Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, angrily takes him apart for his attempt to eliminate citizens from the Growth Management Act process.

As to Mielke’s letter, he craftily leads the reader to believe his testimony didn’t support the fee, but the quote above tells the truth. Then he whines about being the “target of misinformed attacks.” When you’re caught on camera, you own it. As to the other issues French barks about, they’re political diversions from the lie and not worth a response.

John Roskelley

Spokane