Takes issue with reporting
This letter is in response to Zack Plair’s 12/28/18 article on city credit card usage. The last sentence saying that Parks and Recreation Director Greg Lewis had two charges at local restaurants left your readers with the impression that these charges were for personal use.
If complete facts were given, your readers would know that every purchase made has a receipt submitted with a code that explains what the charge is for. There is no code for “personal usage,” therefore, no purchases can be made for personal use. The two charges that Mr. Lewis made that were mentioned in the article were legitimate purchases. If Zack Plair had included this information in his article, your readers would not have been led to assume wrongdoing had taken place.
It is not advantageous to your readers to print articles that contain only partial information. I hope The Commercial Dispatch takes into consideration this letter and prints all the facts in their articles, not just what creates sensationalism. I also hope this letter is printed so your readers can know the complete facts.
Glenda Cummings
Administrative Assistant
Columbus Parks and Recreation
Editor’s note: The article in question suggested without evidence that Lewis and Mayor Robert Smith inappropriately used city credit cards on food purchases. We should not have highlighted those expenditures out without providing context. We apologize to Smith, Lewis and our readers. We have edited the online version of the story and removed those references.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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