Thin-skinned local leaders
At a Floyd County High School basketball game Friday night, I ran into a public official I’d written about recently. I said hello. He said nothing and turned around and walked away.
After four decades in this business, I’m used to cold shoulders but I’ve found over the years that most national and state politicians have much thicker hides than those on the local levels. In the 1970s, while working for a paper in Illinois, I wrote about the misdeeds of then-governor Dan Walker. At a press conference, he blew up and caled me a "low-life son-of-a-bitch." The next day he called and invited me to breakfast.
In 1971, I asked Vice President Spiro Agnew a question at a press conference in St. Louis that caused him to lose his temper on national TV. A week later, Victor Gold, his press secretary, called and invited me to sit down with the VP for a one-on-one interview.
Local politicians, however, are often a different breed. A story about a supervisor who voted in what appeared to be a conflict of interest resulted in six months of silence from that supervisor. A story on another county official sent him running to the editor of The Floyd Press with a complaint that I was "out to get him." I wasn’t, but the voters were. He lost badly in the next election.
Some local officials aren’t so skittish. When Circuit Clerk Wendell Peters has a problem with something I write, he gets in my face and tells me so. So does Sheriff Shannon Zeman or Comonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Shortt. I respect them for standing up. But too many others prefer to sulk away in silence or bitch privately to others.
Our elected officials need to remember that they work for us, the people who vote and who pay taxes. Some of them made promises they failed to keep. Others make decisions that seem to go against the wishes of the people they represent. When that happens, they should be man or woman enough to stand up and take the heat.
Floyd Countians tend to get rid of those they feel don’t deliver. In the last local elections, voters sent three incumbents packing. With new elections coming up this fall, those who think they no longer have to listen to the voice of the people should remember that lesson.
I feel the same way (although I sometimes refer to us as Floydians..lol) about elected officials. I’m hoping to see some new faces after the election. Especially the way a few of them don’t feel the necessity to respond to direct questions put to them by the those people who elected them. My hope is Floydians will remember who on the BOS had meaningful dialogue with us and who didn’t.
Doug,
I agree with you wholeheartedly on this issue. Elected officials need to remember who’s working for who. The people of this county “hired” them and if the officials don’t do their jobs, the people of this county will “fire” them. It’s just that simple.
Furthermore, if the officials do their job as they should, they won’t have to worry about somebody being “out to get them”.
And our host. For over 25 years I have watched as a splintered, distracted, reclusive, disenfranchised, and ignorant Floyd County electorate stood on the sidelines while a short busload of individuals have run the county. Now we have blogs like BRM, and a full modernized pro newsman to keep us informed. We need more public participation to improve our government, and the new media facilitates that outcome.
If someone criticizes you for your job, you should offer them your job. If you are not willing to give them your job, you need to thank them and move on.
Too many politicians think we should all just “get along” which generally means we do what they say.
I’m guessing that in your line of work you’ve learned that when various public officials are mad at you, you’re really doing your job well. Thanks for having the guts and conflict tolerance to keep us informed about the tough issues in Floyd County and Southwest Virginia, because such information helps us prepare to deal with problems like unfair real estate assessments or excessive hospital charges.