MORE THAN EVER…WE NEED YOUR HELP…
On September 20, Moab’s City Manager Rebecca Davidson and her housemate Tara Smelt filed a lawsuit against me, The Zephyr, and four citizen co-defendants from Moab, Utah and Kemmerer, Wyoming. Davidson accuses us of “defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress,” and “intentional interference with economic relationships” of Smelt/Tayo Inc. Since then, Davidson has been terminated by the City of Moab, though not ‘for cause,’ and received an $82,000 severance. So far, neither the Council nor the Mayor have uttered one word in defense of their own citizens or this publication.
Their specific allegations against The Zephyr stem from last November when we initiated an investigation into the controversy stemming from actions by the City Council and its new City Manager. We spent hundreds of hours gathering documents, conducting interviews, filing FOIA and GRAMA requests in Moab and Kemmerer, requesting and reviewing reports from the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, and assembling that mass of information into an accurate, comprehensive and fact-based 14,000 word article, “What’s Past Is Prologue.”
We stand by every word of it.
My co-defendants are being sued simply for expressing opinions at public meetings and on a Facebook page called “Citizens for Transparency in Local Government.” We believe the purpose of this lawsuit is to intimidate and squash open discussion and debate, and even to silence, perhaps permanently, this publication.
The Zephyr relies heavily on the support of our readers and we don’t know how long this process will last or how expensive it will be. We have operated on a shoestring for almost 30 years, but we’ve never needed your backing like we do now.
Thanks for reading…
PLEASE KEEP THE ZEPHYR AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT ALIVE.
HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP…
JOIN THE BACKBONE
by Jim Stiles or a DVD of the documentary film, “Brave New West,”
from High Plains Films. (Let us know which you prefer)
Lifetime: $1000
You can use your credit card through PayPal at our web site:
PO Box 271, Monticello, UT 84535
3 Responses
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Just sent a little your way. Wish I could afford more. Going to Moab tomorrow for a Back of Beyond book sale. Otherwise, the place is just one fucking mess! Paradise lost.
Wish I could give more at this time! I, too, was hit hard financially with this debacle!
Just penned 100 bucks to you Jim, I’ll get it in the mail y\to you tomorrow