I just got off the phone with the City Attorney Terry Wood. Our conversation had to do with the following statement that has been mentioned to me on a couple different occasions, “I’ll have to share this information with Public Affairs so they can get it out to all other candidates.” The “information” is answers to questions that I’ve proactively asked and have to items I’m researching. Terry informed me that this is a policy the City implemented years ago in an effort to not be accused of showing favoritism towards a particular candidate.
In all honesty, I’m not a fan of this process at all. It basically means that you could have candidate A doing lots of work, and candidate B, C, and D reaping the benefits. What are your thoughts on this?
I just wanted to share this with you as it’s something that came as a surprise to me.
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Hey Ryan… Greensboro Grub here. Are you saying that if you ask for info and/or question someone in City Gov.t. that they must share even your questions with other candidates? In other words, you “competition” will know exactly what and where you are investigating? If this is the case… have you received any info on questions and/or info that your opponents are asking?
Charlie,
Thanks for joining the conversation. From what I have been told you are correct. I’ve not received any info, but I have no clue if others ask the questions I tend to ask.
Ryan
So, basically… either the other candidates aren’t asking questions, or you aren’t being given the information that they are. And you can’t prove a negative.
WOW. Interesting town I’ve moved to.
I think the next question you ask should be “what prompted the city to take this policy position on the dissemination of information to candidates”
Ryan, that doesn’t smell very good. What if your campaign manager or someone working on your campaign presented the public information request? That doesn’t sound right. I would ask Terry to be very specific as to where that policy came from.
The policy seems like a good idea on the face of it. However, when I ran for Gbo. City Council, I received some stuff that I already had or knew. I guess the other candidates received stuff I requested. Greensboro gov. doesn’t tell the candidates who requested the info.
It seems like a waste of money printing and mailing some of the requested information and much of it can be gleaned by attending meetings, which some candidates don’t have time to do. And if they don’t have time to find out what is going on, then they probably don’t have time to be good Council members.
But;, nothing is perfect.
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