Mike Baker out after 2016 season

In the Park Board’s latest letter to the editor of this paper, July 28, 2016, it again purposefully misleads. Ironically, in so doing, it affirms the accurateness of my June 2, July 7 and August 25 columns about Mike Baker and his departure from the Theodore Wirth golf complex. Let’s review the time line:

• March 2016: The Park Board posted a job opening for the position held by Mike Baker. When he asked why, after what was later called 25 years of “valued” service, he was told the position now required a college degree.
• June 2, 2016, my first MSR Baker column: “Racism inside Theodore Wirth golf course: White Mike Baker forced out by internal White racism.”
• June 16, 2016, first Park Board letter to the MSR (no heading), establishing their case. Amazingly: a White person making the claim of no racism to a Black newspaper.
• The decision to force Mike Baker out through termination was now no longer an option when they found out that he had obtained an attorney. Now they informed him, retroactively, that he was not fired but “transferred” to Meadowbrook Golf Course in St. Louis Park, for the 2017 season (but at a significant decrease in pay).
• June 23, 2016, MSR news story: “Minneapolis parks chief defends racial equity process: 20 year plan tackles 20 year work backlog.” Martin Luther King, Jr., made it clear “why we can’t wait.” The Park Board says it is engaging in a 20-year plan to correct a 20-year work backlog: 20+20= 40 years of waiting and still counting.
• Early July 2016: They tried to get Mr. Baker to write a letter to the MSR and state that my columns were wrong. Mike Baker refused because the columns were not wrong. So they wrote the letter. It was shameful and mean-spirited to ask Mr. Baker to lie about his situation. Mr. Baker has more integrity and courage than a lot of people in the Park Board system. Mr. Baker refused to carry out any action that would be a misrepresentation of the facts, of which he obviously has first-hand knowledge.
• July 7, 2016, my second MSR Baker column: “Michael Baker is out at Theodore Wirth golf course.”
• July 28, 2016: second Park Board letter to MSR editor — as Mr. Baker would not write it — with heading, “Edwards wrong: Park Board employee not fired” (which was their intent when wrote the first column, now changed to “transferred”). They carelessly used the term “temporary” position when it has been a position for 85 years. The complaint that I had not spoken to the letter writer nor to Mr. Baker is disingenuous. I have not talked to nor met with Mr. Baker, as I don’t want to jeopardize his employment. I’ve been aware since late May that he was under surveillance. My sources are extremely reliable and will continue to be reliable as I continue my surveillance of the Park Board and its managing. They win the award for consistently misleading and changing their narrative.

August 25, 2016: this third MSR Baker column, “Mike Baker out after 2016 season.” To the city’s forensic auditors and to the quislings who sit like Black crows on the fence of nullification and reversal. Compare the employment records of the golf courses under Mr. Baker’s supervision against the lack of diversity in golf courses not under his supervision.

Mr. Baker is a man of integrity. I respect his refusal to play the game of deceit, segregation and nullification.

Stay tuned.

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