Reader responds to city PIO’s letter to citizen
While I am not a fan of Lee Roy Lollar’s political positions, I do empathize with his suspicion of the Columbus City Council in particular and the City in general.
The Council has made numerous missteps in the fairly recent past. We have seen it punish policy violations without the benefit of self-awareness; demonstrate a failure to keep abreast of such important considerations as the city’s financial state; employ a City Attorney who, in my opinion, occasionally functions as an advocate for the best interests of the Council despite the fact that they are not aligned with the best interests of the City; attempt to limit public commentary at its meetings to commentary pre-approved by the Council; use its power to surgically punish individual businesses which had not broken any laws; undermine a relationship with an organization that has delivered billions of dollars of economic development to the area; extort another organization for tax revenue to which it was not entitled under the law, blowing up an important stream of tax revenue in the process; and repeatedly sidestep the very transparency laws that exist to enable citizens like Mr. Lollar, myself, and the press to understand and comprehend the actions of the Council and their justification for those actions.
Sadly, the above is not an exhaustive list.
“Many great things” may be happening in our city every day, but the council has been involved in a “great many things” which are decidedly questionable, probably avoidable, and impossible for anyone not on the Council to understand because the Council has repeatedly attempted to operate without the level of transparency required by law. Given that history and your capacity as Columbus’ Public Information Officer, Mr. Dillon, it’s ironic to find you engaged in publicly berating a citizen for their lack of understanding of the Council’s actions and resultant criticism.
I’m glad that citizens like Mr. Lollar are able and motivated to regularly attend Columbus City Council meetings. Left to its own devices, I believe the Council would happily shrug off the yoke of public oversight.
Joe Bush
Columbus
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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