tnt said:
br fan said:
There's no doubt Pflu failed to report the incident up the line, but Engstrom has always been clear in his releases that at least the official position of UM was that Pflu officially did nothing wrong because he was not required to do so under the procedures in place at that time (we can debate whether Pflu was stupid in failing to report it, which unofficially led to his firing).
The thing that intrigues me, however, is you normally are an outspoken advocate for Engstrom and I'm curious if that extends to the Barz report. It's pretty easy to blame the "cover-up" in amending the Barz report, if there was one, on O'Day and Foley, but it appears to me Engstrom was calling the shots. Earlier you stated UM would have been better off being open about what happened, but if that's true, I am curious as to why you don't think that includes Entstrom and what he has stated in his press releases.
I think you ask legitimate questions. But this was in January. My impression is that Engstrom saw the emails suggesting changes to the Barz report, wet himself laughing and answered "whatever" I suspect O'day and Foley still thought they had things under control and damage control was working. The official position WAS Pflu did nothing wrong and that the policy was wrong. My personal opinion is that had pflu kept his mouth shut on the JJ issue he MIGHT have survived. But even the getting rid of Oday et al, it was pretty hard to let O'day go and NOT Pflu. None the less pflu has been treated with a lot more respect and consideration, even giving him an office to conduct he job search from, than one would think.
Also in all those "press releases" Engstrom has repeated over and over in interviews that as open as he thought he was, the One thing he has learned through all of this is that he wasn't open enough, had he a PR attitude, I'd help light the torches. I don't think anyone knows how to handle these things as they are happening. They could have been handled better, but they could have been handled worse. Can you imagine the mess if PR was the legal consult and they actually listened to him????? What happens going forward will determine Engstrom's future. But he didn't cause THIS mess.
I'm not sure that I agree with your premise that Engstrom wasn't aware of the severity of the situation or was somewhat out of the loop in January when the report was amended, but for the moment I'll assume that was case. What I'm talking about was his press release in February that went with the Missoulian article I posted above. In it Engstrom defended UM's actions in having the report amended to protect confidentiality, and this was after the Federal Investigations were announced. If I'm not mistaken that is still his position.
Now if amending the Barz report was a "cover up," I don't see your reasoning on why you feel Engstrom will only be judged on what he does going forward. He's part of where we are today regardless of when he knew. Personally, one of the reasons why I don't feel there was an intent to make this a cover up is Engstrom defending the amendment. At this point Engstrom's trying to protect his own job, so why take the position if it's not accurate.
With regard to Pflu having an office, he was not fired; his contract was not renewed and it does not expire until the end of the year. I don't think this was respect and consideration on UM's part. I think UM took the position that "we're not firing you," and Pflu took the position that "if that's the case you better provide me with an office."