Allright, I'll bite just this once for old times sake.  First, AJ is the poster child of mixed bags.  He's the most conservative hippy hating hippy around who as far as I can tell, where school board transparency/ fiscal responsibility is concerned appears to be thee single ray of relative sunshine in a field of silly geese and turd tulips that stretches well beyond the known universe (Duluth). 

The whole 'Art assaulted me mentally and poked me in my flabby man-boob' shtick is beyond reproach, and so last year. Sure, I've been mentally assaulted by Art too during political arguments that left me chasing my tail and scratching my head, but you don't see me spending 150k of taxpayer money on lawyers while sipping cocktails by the pool.
 
The real issue at play here is the 'maverick' who asked too many questions at school board meetings making the inflated bobble heads running the board, (who probably received payouts from Johnson Controls) nervous.  Love or hate him,  he's the only one who had anything to say about the general bagging and tagging Duluthians endured at the hands of these and other parasites. Perhaps the moral here would be, try to avoid letting other people do your thinking/voting for you? What a long strange trip Duluth. It's been real.

 And speaking of goofy, can anyone explain why downtown has an added bonus 10 percent food and drink tax while Canal Park doesn't?

Nicolas, first, I doubt you've spent 1% of the time Ramos has at school board meetings.  Like how would you compare the Aquarium project to the Canal Bridge for instance?  Yah, what's done is done, I got that part. But Art J aside, did you get to vote on the 'Red Plan?' The lack of democracy where that was concerned surprised me how readily people accepted it.  Like a docile child who was told he couldn't have an extra cookie.   And didn't Duluth recently spend millions to repair a brand new roof built by JC that wasn't designed to hold snow?   Duluth also sued Johnson Controls in a separate incident and won which would imply this particular company has an unstable history where trust is concerned, and if corruption did happen, wouldn't it have been nice to double check if all was honky duty? Or maybe even just spend an hour on it to shut Art up?

But all that aside, no one I've asked about this subject, even the well educated Duluthians like Lundgren, appear to have the foggiest clue of what went on here.  I'm all for water under the bridge too, but Ramos has the track record of a math wizard bloodhound when sniffing out misspent funds, so why should I trust your take on the school board again?   I want them to be the grandfatherly guiding light that does no wrong too, and for Art to go away if that's the right thing,  yet I'm also aware how easily industry takes advantage of things like school boards using lawyers to scuttle normal voting procedures among taxpayers, and where big money is involved, loose lips sink ships. 

But when I think of the DNT's scolding parental tone toward Johnston though,  'journalism' does not come to mind.

You're right Nick, this thread really does showcase the tribal and provincial aspects of this town. At least it isn't humorless too.

If it's any consolation, Art is calling this a victory for democracy.