Below is an article that I submitted as a paper in my journalism class at USF St. Pete. I wanted to say thanks to David Hamilton, county administrator and to Commissioners Russell and Rocco for all their assistance in this article.
Local government officials are taking a pro-active approach to provide more transparency with the public by establishing standing committees.
“The standing committee structures will be similar to those in the Florida Legislature,” County Commission Chairman David Russell said. As a former state representative, Russell suggested that the county-level committees will carry considerable weight even though their decisions will require full board of county commission concurrence.
“Staff and I are still working out the details,” said Russell when asked what his first priority would be for the budget and finance standing committee. “The committees will focus on line-item budget issues, purchases, acquisitions, audit recommendations and budget compliance.”
Commissioner Rose Rocco was appointed by the chairman to lead the budget and finance standing committee. Rocco pointed out that priorities will be needed to establish guidelines for community needs, without losing sight of budget constraints by unnecessary spending practices.
“I believe that I was chosen to lead this committee because our chairman has confidence in my abilities, and understands that I have a good feel for the needs of the community,” Rocco said. “My first priority is to come back with a balanced budget that is affordable, and accountable, to the citizens of Hernando County.”
“Including members of the public, with a background in each area related to the proposed committees brings the benefit of inclusion to consider public business,” Hernando County Administrator David Hamilton said. With the inclusion of county residents on these standing committees, Hamilton sees this method as a way to connect with the community.
“The objective of these standing committees will establish a transparent structure for commissioners to work with the public,” Hamilton said. It is his opinion that this structure will allow commissioners to work at a deeper policy level. “These standing committees should provide selected members of the public, and the general public, yet another opportunity to become engaged in their government,” said Hamilton.
A public workshop was conducted by the Hernando County Board of Commissioners in December where goals were established to form these standing committees. The standing committees will be made up of two county commissioners and three members of the public, according to public records.
Discussion at this workshop indicated the standing committees will review and make recommendations, to the commissioners at-large, on major issues facing the county. County government has specified that these committees will operate under the Florida Sunshine Law to provide recommendations but the final decision-making authority will remain with the sole discretion of the entire Hernando County Board of Commissioners.
This workshop provided the opportunity for county commissioners to direct county staff to develop concepts for two standing committees, a budget and finance standing committee, and an economic development standing committee, for their January agenda.
The Hernando County Board of Commissioners will review a packet of duties, and appointment options for these standing committees, at their January 27 meeting. According to public records, specific criteria will be used to screen members of the public for these committees. These records indicate that applicants for the budget and finance standing committee will be given consideration based on their background in banking or finance, and their senior management experience.
Each committee will consist of two county commissioners, and three members of the public, based on prior county commission discussions. The county staff is recommending a two-year appointment but stressed that members would need to have computer access because the county government is a paper-less system, with all their agendas digitally prepared and distributed by county staff.
While the final details are still under consideration for the county commissioners at their Jan. 27 meeting, all signs are favorable for the formation of these standing committees to include members of the public, government officials said.
“I believe that by bringing the expertise from the public, the process will be enhanced to a great degree,” Hernando County Commission Chairman David Russell said. “Doing so will provide more transparency, and objectivity, with private sector ideas and efficiencies.”
7 comments:
And who suggested transparency so that every citizen could see how their tax dollars are spent and who gets the contracts when issued?
Good subject for your essay.
"Transparency" was the over-riding tone from everyone I interviewed for the article. My article focused on the nuts & bolts of the formation of the standing committees, not the guidelines by which they will work. I assume BCC will discuss how these committees will function in the coming weeks.
You might want to ask about tranparency and current budgeting methodologies. Have they been transparent in the past? How did they transparently handle the 41 million cash forward money from last year's budget? How did they get such a large amount into the judicial center capital budget? How did they get so much into the workers compensation budget? How are they transparently going to fund the buyouts of the senior staff from the workers compensation budget. Look at the mission statement for workers compensation. It says nothing about buyouts for staff. Also, how did they manage to transparently order a stretcher from the workers comp budget. Something a blossoming reporter might want to check into. Might be a break for you into the business.
Your future editor might tell you that "...officials are taking..." should be changed to ...officials claim to be taking... in order to keep your opinion out of the reporting. Also, the editor would blue-pencil about two-thirds of the "article" due to redundancy. Not bad, but don't give up your day job yet!
I will take your comments into consideration the next time I hand in a paper on "what not to do" since my professor gave me an "A" on this one.
Looks like you might need to sharpen your pencil and head back to school, huh?
If you are aspiring to be a reporter and hope to be paid by the column inch, your article (better defined as an editorial column do to a lack of objectivity) would garner you a big pay check if, and only if it survived the editor's blue-pencil.
You need to remember that most professors receive tenure for how much and how often they publish.
The goal for a newspaper reporter is to report the facts as completely as possible in the least amount of space with a tease at the beginning and the meat at the end of the article.
I challenge you to give your "article" to a real world editor of a newspaper and request a critique. It may prove enlightening.
Good luck with your class.
I believe this professor has penned two books, plus many publications.
Thanks for the comments on the length. This was not by my choice; this professor requires at least 4 pages per article. I would much prefer it to be concise, to the point, while leaving out all the filler information.
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