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Show Elected officials need to help heal 0 county's black eye ' 4 Once again the actions of a few have cast aspersions on the whole. Why do Davis County elected officials keep taking ac-: ac-: tion and making statements that keep the county's black eye a ' ; real shiner? ; The most recent feather in the county's dunce cap was add ed by North Salt Lake in the city's attempt to control what information in-formation it releases to the press. This follows closely on the heels of the stories about the reported "gag order" issued by the Woods Cross City mayor regarding the firing of the South Davis Fire District chief. Not long before that members of the Bountiful City Council and their mayor exchanged barbs over controversial private retreats that were not advertised. The mayor said he just ''didn't know" it would be a problem. And who can forget the antics of the county commission where each week the members came ready to do battle. At one J well publicized encounter a commissioner invited a Tribune news reporter to ' step outside. ' ' The North Salt Lake City Councilman who suggested the media relations policy said he just didn't know it would be so controversial. Councilman Nathan Clark said, "I just wanted to protect the city from liability." His proposed policy allowed only the mayor to speak freely to the press, and subjected personal opinions by employees to censure by the city council. The policy also required elected and appointed officials of the city to get written permission from the mayor before speaking to media representatives. Employees who spoke to the press "in their official capacity without written permission will be disciplined and may be terminated after consideration by the city council," concluded the policy. It's hard to imagine that anyone proposing such a policy would not think it would create a furor. Of course city employees wanted to know just what was going on. Of course the mayor didn't approve of the proposed policy. What's difficult to understand is that even after the city was subjected to ridicule in daily newspapers, on talk radio shows and by city residents demanding to know "what else they are doing behind our backs," at least one city councilman felt the proposed pro-posed policy was a good attempt to correct a problem with city employees making "rash statements." It seems the majority of rash statements coming from North Salt Lake are being made by, elected officials, not employees. It was stated by one city official that the liability that could come from adopting the proposed policy would be greater than any liability coming from an employee speaking to the press. North Salt Lake has had its share of controversial news coverage in recent years. The decision by the city council to approve construction of a medical waste incinerator was met with opposition from the citizens. The actions of a city councilman coun-cilman who allegedly destroyed some city property in an attempt at-tempt to excavate his lot were reported in 1990. In 1991 the city faced an ongoing battle with residents who opposed the street design associated with the new golf course. And in recent re-cent weeks it was reported that an attempt was being made to oust the city building inspector because the brother of one of the city councilmen did not feel he was competent. All of this controversy made the newspapers, some made the nightly news, but none of it was created by the press. Although some are conjecturing that the suggested North Salt Lake policy is an overt attempt to cover up some unpopular un-popular movements within the city, councilmen are denying that there was any conspiracy behind the proposal. Clark stated that since he has had problems with the city's administration in the past, now everything he does is interpreted inter-preted to have an ulterior motive. He wondered aloud if an elected official becomes ineffective due to that mindset. An elected official becomes ineffective when it appears he has something to hide. The press is not the enemy. A free press serves to inform the public about the news that affects their Olives. It is not the goal of the press to make the news. The duty of the press, is to report the news, good or bad. Davis County is a great place, with great men and women ' serving in important positions. Let's stop the sneers and snickers. Elected officials cannot use the "I didn't think" ex-'. ex-'. cuse for making poor choices. After all, they were elected to "think," and they cannot blame the press for reporting their r" j"thoughtless" actions. |