It was a casual observation, tinged with mild frustration, made during Monday’s Christmas tree bonfire.
The person said she has lived in many cities and had watched how local governments performed their duties in each. Nowhere, she’s lived, were policies adopted with so little public discussion as here in Columbus.
This week alone, we witnessed two examples that support that argument.
Monday, the Lowndes County board of supervisors approved a $7,000 pay raise for its road manager, Ronnie Burns.
District 4 Supervisor Jeff Smith and District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks voted against the raise, even though both were as effusive in their praise of Burns’ job performance as Board President Harry Sanders, who proposed the raise.
The issue was how the matter was handled. The raise wasn’t an agenda item. Instead, it was presented by Sanders as a substitute motion as the board made its four-year appointments for department-head positions.
“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” said Smith.
Tuesday, during its city council meeting, the council approved a proposal to create a new city position — Public Relations Director. Although the proposal was listed as an agenda item, the council discussed the idea only briefly before voting unanimously to create the position, which comes with salary ranging from $38,000 to $42,000.
In each case, we see a failure when it comes to having a full, thoroughly considered discussion before policies are enacted.
In the case of the supervisors meeting, the process was flawed by not placing it on the agenda, which would have given all of the decision makers an opportunity to think the proposal through, ask questions and consider the implications before the board meeting.
Certainly, providing time for the supervisors to consider the issue would have made for a more thorough discussion during Tuesday’s meeting.
As for the council’s decision, a different flaw emerged. According to Mayor Robert Smith, the idea of adding a PR position has been discussed informally for more than a year.
What was lacking at Tuesday’s meeting is the mayor and council spent little time explaining why the position would be created or what it would achieve. While that information may be well known to the council members, the people they work for, the public, were hearing about the plan for the first time. A more thorough explanation seems in order.
The irony is that a good PR person would have noted the value in that and would urged the council to inform the public of its plans in greater detail. In both cases, decisions were made without the benefit of a full, well-informed public discussion.
That practice benefits neither the policy-maker nor the public.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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