Press release not a problem, city says
A number of calls came into the Sun following a Sept. 10 press release that had the familiar heading of Councilman Rikke Van Johnson with the contact number of Mayor's office staffer D'Ann Lanning ...
People wondered whether their was any conflict or unlawful activity with the revelation that the Mayor's office was working with, or perhaps disseminating, Johnson's press release.
But it's not a problem, said Lanning, because the release advertises a library reading event sponsored by the mayor's office and assisted by Johnson.
Lanning said the mayor wanted councilmembers to volunteer time for the Sept. 20 event at the Dorothy Inghram branch library. Johnson volunteered, but it's still a mayor's office event, she said. The release has nothing to do with Johnson's campaign for reelection in November, she added.
Johnson and Morris have been tight allies for the last two years. Johnson was the first councilmember Morris publicly endorsed in the upcoming election.
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Read For The Record is a large national program with many events planned in hopes of breaking last year’s inaugural record of 150,000 books read. Please visit: http://cfd111.cfdynamics.com/readfortherecord/findevent3.cfm?city=San%20Bernardino&state=CA to see the many opportunities to participate!
The mayor's office has been sending out lovely invitations for participation and I applaud their efforts. I received my invitation from D’Ann Lanning on Mayor Pat Morris’ letterhead and appreciated seeing our city’s interest expressed so enthusiastically. This has nothing to do with politics; it is a literacy promotion project for the benefit of children and by extension, our society as a whole.
Those with nothing better to do that search for the most feeble of pretexts for postulating ridiculous hypothesizes are encouraged to read the following from the Jumpstart For Young Children Website and contribute their extra time and energies toward this productive goal.
http://www.readfortherecord.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_main
What is Jumpstart's Read for the Record?
Jumpstart’s Read for the Record is a national campaign designed to encourage hundreds of thousands of children and adults from across the country to read the same book on the same day.
Why was Jumpstart’s Read for the Record created?
The goal of Jumpstart’s Read for the Record campaign is to raise public awareness about significant disparities in early education. An early learning gap exists as early as age 3, due primarily to economic inequality. And because of these early discrepancies in language acquisition and literacy skills, one third of America’s children arrive at their first day of school unprepared to learn. Awareness about this issue is crucial, as this early learning disparity serves as a critical precursor to our country’s persistent educational achievement gap.
How Jumpstart’s Read for the Record Works
Through this campaign, Jumpstart is asking Americans to support early education opportunities for all children by reading the official campaign book, The Story of Ferdinand, together on September 20, 2007 to break the record for the largest shared reading experience ever, which was set by 150,000 people on August 24, 2006 during the inaugural year of Jumpstart’s Read for the Record campaign. Reading activities on September 20 can range from personal sessions between an adult and a child to big group events with hundreds of people gathering together for a large community reading session.