At the bottom of Mr. Aki's column I saw the word "Columnist" not "Community Voice" or "Community Contributor."  In the interest of transparency it might be nice for Civil Beat to include with "About the author" a clear designator to show whether the author is a paid columnist or merely a community voice.

So Patti, perhaps you would now clarify whether Mr. Aki's lengthy series of columns before he ran for the legislature were as a paid columnist or as a community voice.  And what about the very lengthy series of columns by Peter Apo (which seemed to come every second and fourth Thursday), and by Ian Lind, and others?  If someone "contributes" numerous articles on what appears to be a regular basis, that author is more than merely a one-shot "community voice."