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Bryant officials' thinking is fuzzy |
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Monday, 24 March 2008 |
It’s difficult to understand the way Bryant city officials are thinking lately in attempting to deal with the city’s investigation of Fire Chief Randy Cox.
Officials are admittedly concerned about the city's black eye resulting from the mess surrounding firefighters and their chief. At the same time, however, city officials don’t appear to be doing much to help heal the negative image.
Bryant officials believe — government types usually do in a case like this — that the media is contributing to the negative image by reporting on the investigation and on issues surrounding the inquiry. Bryant officials don’t appear to understand that the media is doing its job of providing information to taxpayers about a troubling situation involving people whose salaries are paid by taxpayers.
We wonder: Who should shoulder blame for a negative image when city officials blatantly deny that an investigation is ongoing when they know otherwise? That is what happened when initial inquires were made by the media. Mayor Larry Mitchell and Shayne King, city personnel director, were asked in plain terms if the city was investigating Fire Chief Cox. They both answered, “No.”
Did they really believe that the media would ask such a question without good reason? Or did they really believe that the media would take “No” for an answer when media members knew otherwise?
To Mitchell’s credit, he did later discuss, as openly as he could, circumstances surrounding the investigation. He was not expected to be completely candid because media members understand that it’s difficult for officials do discuss certain details of an ongoing investigation. In fact, officials usually are advised by city attorneys or other legal counsel to be extremely careful with such comments.
We, the media, the people who are the disseminators of public information, believed that relations with Bryant city officials were improving when the city threw another curveball. Officials received a ruling from the state attorney general’s office Wednesday stating that city officials could serve as custodians of the files pertaining to the Cox investigation. The files were being kept in the police department’s evidence locker until that ruling was issued. That’s when the City Council decided to hold an “emergency” meeting, to peruse the files.
City officials, knowing they are required by law to notify the media of council meetings, did so by sending an e-mail around 5 p.m. to a reporter who was fortunate enough to leave the office by 5 on Wednesday. Hours in this business are weird, you understand, so the 8 to 5 office concept is foreign to those of us in the newsroom.
The council met, mostly in special session, and the following day issued a press release saying the council had met and that city officials at this time do not feel that allegations by firefighters warrant Cox’s removal as chief. Like the ill will between Cox and firefighters can ever be repaired?
What concerns us is that Bryant is beginning to exhibit what no city wants to exhibit: An apparent lack of leadership.
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