Speaking Personally: Stirring the pot?

In honor of Missouri's Sunshine Week, I want to talk about a George Orwell quote, "Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations."

 

In the Ozarks, we might call this, "stirring the pot." At least, I've often been accused of as much. I prefer to think this publication seeks to lift the lid to tell you who is cooking. Very little appears in these pages because someone asked me to print it. There are items in every edition that I am certain you can't find anywhere else. We decline the overwhelming majority of press releases that flood the news office.

 

Instead of allowing public bodies or businesses to control the news via press releases, we watch. We report on their doings according to our own judgement and training. As such, I say it's not stirring the pot when we show up at public meetings asking questions. Frankly, it's something you, our readers, should try.

 

I asked questions at the February board of aldermen meeting in Willow Springs. I observed that an elected position has been effectively removed from the municipal government. This change was not decided by the body who has the legal authority to govern, at least not publicly. There was never a vote or motion.

 

The ordinance defining and empowering the city marshal is still on the books. In the February meeting, following a discussion of updating outdated ordinances, which I've previously reported will include the marshal's ordinance, I asked who decided to remove that position from the list of offices on the April 8 ballot. The silence that followed my question was long and awkward.

 

Alderman Danny Bradley spoke up and said, "I thought it had been taken care of already."

 

Others on the board of alderman agreed.

 

But it hadn't. 

 

Bryan Hogan, the last person elected to the seat, retired years ago. His term hasn't expired.

 

It does not matter that the work of a city marshal, defined by ordinance, is duplicated by the presence of the chief of police. I won't even disagree that city marshal is probably a useless public office.

 

City Administrator Beverly Hicks and I exchanged emails in 2022 about the marshal's office after Hogan's retirement. There has been ample opportunity to "clean up" the ordinance. As often as I have praised Hicks for how meticulously and conscientiously she manages the city, this is a bizarre exception.

 

The "clean up" never took place, and yet the office has disappeared.

 

Someone decided to exclude it from this spring's ballot. Someone approved a list of offices for election and sent it to the election authority. It's interesting that the county clerk didn't catch the omission.

 

Hogan's term is up next month, three years after he stepped down. A "clean up" would have been an election or appointment of a new city marshal. Or there should have been a vote eliminating the office prior to the preparation of the ballots.

 

There is no cleaning this up. It's done. Ballots have been printed. Sample ballots will be published in next week's paper. The final city marshal's term is up in April, and the people of Willow Springs will not be electing another.

 

This circumstance, seemingly decided outside of the public sphere, undermines all the public offices in Willow Springs. Removing an elected position from the city government, albeit an essentially useless one, is not a day-to-day function of the city. This change should have been made in open session by elected officials.

 

In this week when journalists across the state are highlighting the importance of open and transparent government, I offer you this local example, not because it concerns a crucial office, or even an office that ought to exist, but because it begs the question. What else can be accomplished in the dark? If you eliminate the city marshal without a proper vote, could you eliminate the mayor's office?

 

The Sunshine Law guarantees you transparent access to almost all the workings of your government, except for certain exceptions. That creates a responsibility for me, the press, and for you, the public.

Governments govern. The press watches and reports, sometimes editorializing to better connect the dots, but the power remains with the people via the ballot box.

 

Open government matters only as much as you say it does.