Candidate for City Commission James Goetz contacted Lakeland Local through a comment left on this site. It appeared on an article about the appearance of a home for sale listing for his residence.
Goetz comment: “Chuck…I thought much better of you previous to this. You have never contacted me in regards to this and the home is in no way for sale. You are a much better reporter than this and this story appears totally fabricated for attention. What are the issues currently facing the city?”
Though the detailed listing does exist at time of this publication, and though we did contact the number listed, we will take Goetz at his word that he is not selling his home.
Though we stand by the article as written, we will remove it while we investigate his claim the listing was “fabricated for attention.”
Bio: The short line? Father, husband, writer. My online presence is primarily through as the editor, writer, and occasional photographer for the news sites, Lakeland Local, a sampling of the news, concerns, and events for Lakeland, Florida, and Metro i4 News, which covers the Interstate 4 corridor in Central Florida. Both sites feature the work of myself and other contributors. As a hobby, I manage a forum and some web sites that feature a pulp fiction series written by Lester Dent -- Doc Savage Organized, Doc Savage Info, and Flearun.
Donkeyrock
11 months ago
If you have the evidence behind you, why are you taking down the article?
Chuck Welch
11 months ago
Because I am a deliberate person….and a one-person operation. I was following up on this story while working two others…and dealing with my normal family duties.
The story was published Wednesday pm just before a severe outage with the site that I worked on early into the morning. I didn’t get the site back online until about 7am. I then left to work on other interviews.
When I returned this afternoon, I received the candidate’s comments, but no answer to my emails or phone calls.
I wanted the candidate to have the opportunity to answer my questions regarding the situation. I didn’t see the harm in holding back the article while I gave him that time.
Tomorrow morning I’ll post any answer I get tonight, and post my last word on the subject.
Donkeyrock
11 months ago
Fair enough. Just making sure you don’t punk out on us. :>