Like others, I have many weaknesses, but reading comprehension is not one of them. So, imagine my surprise when I read the following front page story on Friday (above the fold even--Sorry Muqtada al-Sadr, your story's just not as important to Richmond as this report from a School Board committee meeting.)
http://www.inrich.com/content/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-04-25-0207.html
It didn't take extensive reading comprehension skills to understand the subtitle assertion that when it came time to sign the lease for its space in City Hall, the school board "signed first, read later." I could also decipher the opening lines, "It pays to read the fine print. Richmond school officials didn't." Unfortunately, neither of these statements is true.
I read it--page by page. And other board members did too. More specifically, the school board reviewed the lease in consultation with its attorney. I most certainly DID read--and comprehend--the five page document when it was presented to the board.
At Thursday's school board Finance & Budget committee meeting (on which the RTD story was based), the discussion centered on whether the school system budget might need to include a portion of existing City Hall maintenance costs based on the lease agreement. These costs, which include a boiler replacment for the entire building, didn't change because of this lease, but the lease language illustrated that some of the existing costs could end up on the school system side of the ledger. I'm not sure how the story became "no one read the lease," because that's just not the case.
Kurt Vonnegut once said, "Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the universe.” So don't worry, I'm not trying to get any major credit for doing the job I was elected to do. I just want the story to reflect the facts.
