Gary Deaver and the Press: Communication Breakdown, or is it?

First you have to have communication, before it can break down

The Springfield News-Leader responded to the extreme and lengthy "dressing down" Mayor Pro Tem Gary Deaver gave them at Monday night's Council meeting, in today's paper.

Deaver's rant came as a precursor to the unanimous* passage of a "put or pay" agreement between the City of Springfield and two large local trash companies.

One of the first statements to come from the mouth of the Mayor Pro Tem on Monday night, and one of the most troubling statements, in my opinion, was one the News-Leader failed to include in the segment they made available for readers to listen to at their online edition today. Neither did they address it in their editorial column:

"There's obviously been some criticism of this agreement, by the News-Leader, in particular.

You know, I was planning on coming back to speak at a Council meeting after I was off Council to discuss some of the coverage that I've felt that we've received on issues, not this, but other things in the past...."-Mayor Pro Tem Gary Deaver, March 23, 2009

What the heck is that about!!!??? Is Deaver saying he has been feeling the coverage of the City and the City Council the News-Leader (and possibly other media presences) has published or broadcast in the past was questionable or lacking, but rather than address those issues as they arose, he's been saving it all up for an address to a new Council AFTER his term is over???

I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be harsh, here, but I'm envisioning a bitter, past, City Councilman, second to the Mayor, no less, who simply refused to address errors(?) of the press and media, as they arose, during the term of his service. Instead, the Councilman seems to be saying he has been holding grudges and saving them up for such a time as he felt he could what? Speak more freely? As though he could not pick up the phone and call any News-Leader reporter (not to mention, Springfield Business Journal reporter, Community Free Press reporter, KY3, KOLR10, KSPR, or KSFX reporter) throughout all the years of his service on the City Council, to correct errors or right the record for all of the constituents who he has been "serving" these years, to whom he could have offered clarification of issues so that they might have a greater understanding of the City and the City Council, or the issues facing them?

What kind of "service" is that?

I'm sorry, if Gary Deaver feels he has no platform with the press in this City, as an acting City Council member, it's in his own mind, and is no fault of the press, News-Leader or any other variety.

I find it absolutely incredible that he has been saving up his grievances for when he was no longer sitting on the City Council. I just don't get it. Who told him or where did he ever get the idea that he could not speak to the press freely or tell his side of the story anytime he wanted?

I would have been thrilled, as the City Council beat writer for CFP for almost two years, to have received a phone call from Gary Deaver to correct the record or tell his side of the story on any issue he wanted to discuss. I would have sat with him for untold hours if he'd ever ONCE seemed to be interested in talking with me. In fact, the one, single time, I ever called him and left a message for him to call me back, he never did. Not in 12 hours, 24 hours or 6 months.

I'm STILL waiting for him to return that call.

Communication is a two-way street or, in this case, it's even more than a two-way street. A vital part of the story was missing while the Mayor Pro Tem was saving all his grievances for a time far removed from when his communication could have assisted the public's understanding of issues facing our City.

I do not understand the mentality of some that the press and City officials must be natural adversaries but, the sort of attitude Gary Deaver has gives great insight into why many members of the press and government officials are unnecessary adversaries.

To listen to Deaver's and other Council members' statements about the News-Leader's coverage of the issue in their entirety click this link, click "City Council," under "Previous Meetings" click "March 23, 2009, " then, click Council Bill 2009-044 under the drop-down bookmarks.

*Mayor Tom Carlson and Councilman Doug Burlison were absent.

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Tight-fisted City (and Councilman?) make it Difficult

To provide depth, scope, and understanding on the part of the media, on the topics that they're covering? (see: Mayor Carlson: Excerpt from the State of the City Report)

In Salary ranges recommended for next city manager, Wes Johnson wrote for the Springfield News-Leader:

"Mayor Pro Tem Gary Deaver, who chairs the effort to find a new city manager, said the City Council and Arcus search firm can use the pay study to evaluate what to offer a prospective candidate.

"It's a benchmark tool they can use to understand what wages and compensation is in like-sized cities," Deaver said. "We want to be competitive, but not pay too much."

Though he agreed it was a public document, Deaver asked the News-Leader not to publish the subcommittee's pay-range study....*

He acknowledged the search committee and City Council weren't bound by the pay range included in the study."

Then, Johnson (and the News-Leader) provided the link to the City Manager Compensation Recommendations, I do not know if this is the actual "study" Deaver asked the News-Leader not to publish: Salary ranges recommended for next city manager.

I hope Mayor Carlson is proud of Mr. Johnson for providing such depth and scope, indeed, such understanding of the issue.

CFP requested meeting minutes from all of the City Manager Search Committee meetings and Sub-Committee meetings, including the Compensation Package Sub-Committee. Note was made that at the time of publication of CFP's (June 18) current issue:

"The minutes of the February 1 (Compensation Package Sub-Committee) meeting indicated there would be a "brainstorming meeting" held on February 15. Minutes to that meeting, if it took place, were not submitted to CFP and a response to a follow up request for that information did not come in time for inclusion in this publication." (see: Online Supplimentals to the Print Edition).

CFP got a response, on June 18, from City Clerk Brenda Cirtin about the February 15 meeting referred to during the course of the February 1 meeting. The Administrative Assistant for the Committee was out of her office and unable to respond so I had forwarded my query to the City Clerk:

"I have checked our files and there was no meeting posted for the Compensation Package Sub-Committee on February 15." Ms. Cirtin wrote in an email.

Granted, my query specified a particular meeting in this instance, however, originally, I had requested all meeting minutes regarding the committee from Ms. Smith and there were no other meeting minutes beyond the February 1 meeting of the Compensation Package Sub-Committee included with those minutes.

At the online supplimental page at CFP you can read, under the heading of "The Four Sub-Committees of the City Manager Search Committee," the information I (or CFP, through me) was provided regarding meetings held by the the over-all city manager's search committee and the sub-committee meetings.

Interesting. Apparently, all of that study and preparation necessary to create the Sub-Committee's recommended salary ranges was accomplished with one meeting of the Compensation Package Sub-Committee.

At the first meeting of the City Manager Search Committee, on January 14, 2008, Mayor Pro Tem Gary Deaver stressed that the Committee needed to make the search process as open and transparent to the public as possible.

I signed up for news-letters from the City regarding the progress of the search. I can't remember the last time I received one, seriously.

"It's not like it used to be, there's not the depth, there's not the scope, there's not the understanding on the part of the media, on the topics that they're covering.... It makes it very difficult to get your message out." - Mayor Tom Carlson in his state of the city report.

Maybe you're placing the blame on the wrong people, Mayor Carlson? Just a thought.

*emphasis mine