How about sharing? Let the rest of us in on it – you know, the people who pay your salaries, the people you work for, the citizens of St. Clair County.
Don’t leave us in the dark. Don’t keep secrets from constituents. Is that really so much to ask? Give us a heads-up, add our names to the memo, throw us a bone.
What are we going on about? It’s the latest example of St. Clair County government’s inability, or unwillingness, to embrace transparency.
The county’s computer system has not been functioning properly for the last two weeks. By “properly,” we don’t mean “properly” precisely. We mean “properly” in the sense of “as well as it had been functioning up to then.”
Tell us what you know. Tell us what you don’t know. Tell us something. Were the computer systems of the county and judiciary hacked? Was ransom paid to restore operations, like other institutions across the country?
Make us feel like you understand that you hold a position of public trust and have an obligation to keep us informed. Make us feel like you might possibly value our input and want us to pitch in to help solve the problem.
You’d almost think that county government isn’t keen on transparency.
Republican county board member Ed Cockrell, whose sole committee assignment is the Management Information Committee, had this to say: “I would be absolutely the last person to know anything more. I hear absolutely nothing.”
Cockrell serves on an oversight committee and he and fellow members ought to know in real time if there’s a problem affecting the county government computer system. He serves the citizens of District 7 in and around New Athens. They have questions…about their tax bills, for instance. But Cockrell doesn’t do oversight. He has to wait to hear things.
No press statements released. Calls not returned. Business as usual in St. Clair County.
Here’s the memo that should have gone out: People of St. Clair County, demand action, demand transparency, demand accountability. If the knuckleheads in office don’t deliver, get rid of them.