Refuting Stephanie Dickens

The following was sent to the Pensacola News Journal:



Dear Editor:

In a Viewpoint entitled "Escorts not the only action here - April 1," I referred to my chairmanship of the Pensacola City Council's Citizens Committee on Adult Entertainment Issues in retelling my encounter with a city councilman enraged that I wanted the city to look into the proliferation of escort services.

In a Letter to the Editor entitled "Didn't come back - April 16", Stephanie Dickens wrote, "I served on that adult entertainment committee . . . At our first meeting, we decided against a chairperson."

She continued, "Mr. Lamb came to the first meeting apparently expecting to be appointed chairperson and present his own agenda on the subject of pornography. When this did not occur, he quit the committee and never returned."

Ms. Dickens closed by asking anyone who wants to know the truth, "Our committee meetings and attendance are a matter of public record."

Taking Ms. Dickens up on her suggestion to discover which of us is telling the truth, we find in the committee's minutes dated October 22, 1998: "Committee discussed appointing chairperson - Denise Daughtry moved to nominate Kenneth Lamb; Zebedee Nicholson second; vote taken and approved 4-2 with Mary Jean Miller and Stephanie Dickens opposed."

Further in that meeting's minutes, I am referred to as, "Chairperson Kenneth Lamb."

Concerning her assertion I didn't attend further meetings, in the minutes dated November 12, 1998, following a presentation from local law enforcement officers, "Chairman Kenneth Lamb thanked Captain Johnston and Lt. Enquist for appearing before the Committee. Mr. Lamb passed out material he had obtained on the Internet advertising an escort service."

Ms. Dickens attended both meetings and therefore knew that the truth is that I was elected chairman of the committee - because she lost the vote for chairman, and that I attended subsequent meetings. The minutes don't lie.

Ms. Dickens attacked my professional reputation for writing truthfully; as a bylined writer for the Pensacola News Journal and the Pensacola Business Journal, readers must be able to trust without question that anything written under my byline is the truth. Establishing that what I write can be trusted to be the truth is now "a matter of public record."