By Gary Dickson, Siouxland Observer – Editor

I’m told it’s springtime. I would guess that is true judging from the green color of the grass and the leaves in the trees around Siouxland. I’ve noticed there are flowers, too. The sun seems to be shining more of the day than it was a month ago. And people are out and about walking and riding bikes. All that confirms to me that, yes, it must be springtime.

I don’t want to waste any more of my time sitting in city council or county commission chambers observing our elected officials haggle over whether or not this plat has been correctly presented and dated. I’m annoyed by the one-upmanship and other games being played. I’m equally annoyed with the sleight of hand and hiding of business from the public the county leaders continue to do. Perhaps if I was paid to do so, it might be different. But I’m not, and it’s not.

So, for the next three or four or five months I leave you to your own motivations. If you wish to find out what’s going on on our local government boards, go to their meetings in person. I think citizens should do that once in a while anyway, if nothing else, just to see what happens in these meetings. They can be quite mundane, but they can occasionally be exciting. They certainly can be eye-opening.

I wouldn’t expect to read about them in the local weekly newspapers, though. Even though the Union County Leader Courier and North Sioux City Times are both designated as “official” newspapers of Union County, Elk Point, Jefferson, North Sioux City, Dakota Dunes, Elk Point-Jefferson School District and Dakota Valley School District and are paid by all those government entities to publish legal advertising, you likely won’t see a reporter from those papers at any of their meetings. Instead, their stories are written after the fact, either from the meeting minutes or calling up someone, like the person writing the minutes, for extra information about the meeting. What this does is give the government agency control of the information process. If the government entity doesn’t want something in the press, then it doesn’t go in the minutes. After all, a newspaper reporter wasn’t at the meeting personally so they can dispute what is published or ask about something that wasn’t in the minutes.

As I’ve always said, you don’t have open government unless the press is there in person covering their meetings.

But I’m tired of doing the local newspaper’s job. I quit covering the Union County Commission a couple of months back. Now the nice spring weather reminds me there are more pleasant things to do than cover the North Sioux City Council. Besides, I have some other feature stories I want to write. Like a history of the Jefferson School, the Military Road, the Farmers’ Holiday Association and The Great Turkey Drive to the Black Hills.

And who knows, maybe by the end of the summer, old Brand X will also figure out how to be a real newspaper and start covering our local government meetings. That would be nice.

So, I hope you’ll be like me and enjoy the spring and summer. Maybe I’ll see you around. If you’ve got an idea for a story for me to write (as long as it doesn’t involve local government) give me a call or email me.

Until then, Ta-Ta-For-Now.

Your friend,

Gary

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