Mayoral Candidate Luna Demands Apology from APN
(APN) ATLANTA — In a bizarre email, chef and Mayoral candidate Paul Luna requested that APN apologize to a City employee on behalf of Luna relating to a recent article published by APN.
Earlier this month, APN interviewed Luna at his downtown restaurant and published an article based on that interview on Sunday, February 17, 2013.
In the article, APN reported that Luna made an Open Records Act request to JoAnn Macrina, Commissioner of the Department of Watershed for the City of Atlanta, for certain documents. APN has a copy of the request and the response from Macrina.
APN reported that Macrina responded she would forward the request to a city employee, Susan Ross, and that Luna told APN that he received no response from Ross.
In a voicemail left for APN, Luna said that he did not intend to target Susan Ross and that he intended to target JoAnn Macrina.
In a follow-up email, Luna demanded that APN apologize to Ross on Luna’s behalf for reporting the facts relating to Ross’s alleged nonresponse to Luna’s open records request.
As an aside, it is Macrina, not Ross, who remains responsible for responding to the request under the Act, whether or not she delegated the request to someone else.
The email is reprinted here because it gives insight into the communication style and thought process of someone who is running for Mayor of Atlanta:
“I do not have a reply or a comment for what was written. What I do have is a thought. You took action for yourself and in your actions you offended someone who is not deserving of your words. I want you to write on my behalf an apology to Susan Ross. I do not know if you want to apologize yourself. Please lets not confuse my words and actions with yours,” Luna wrote.
In a response to Luna, APN denied Luna’s request for an apology to Ross, noting it is not a practice that we would engage in.
“I do not want to be mentioned in your internet publication. You are more then welcome to publish this e-mail in your publication which is the right thing for you to do since you are the editor and publisher of your own words, your own doing and your own actions. You made a point it was your story. Now I am letting you know I do not need you to write MY story,” Luna added.
The document that Luna was seeking from the City of Atlanta was a study that Luna said was conducted regarding the City’s sewer system. Luna claims that the entire regulatory scheme around preventing grease from getting into the City’s sewer system is based on a lie because, he says, “oil doesn’t travel.”
Luna also told APN he has a law firm, a media company, and an advertising agency, and is starting an alternative banking system.
APN recently learned of a video created by Luna called “LUNA – Life Usually Never Answers,” posted on his campaign website, in which he makes a number of incoherent statements.
“Isn’t it odd that I am only seen as a chef? I don’t know if that is the way it’s supposed to be. I really question that… I know that there is greed, I know that there is ambition. All I want to do is just live,” Luna says in the video, uploaded to Youtube on January 30, 2012.
“An artist is able to capture and go beyond, but all you’re left with is the beauty of your absence and in this beauty of a canvass, I’m not interested in signing a name because what is left is just a canvass, like in the painting, like in you. All I see is me. I don’t see you. I see me,” Luna said.
“I really can’t ask in life, I must ask my daily living. The message from me is clear. I’m not a messenger. And no one needs to hear me. All they have to do is question,” Luna said.
(END/2013)