I’ve always relied on backup information in covering meetings – all news really.
But to rely on information provided to explain something is more like a hoped-for proposition.
Jessica and I both covered city council last week.
It was an experimental sort of thing – I would cover some parts of the rather long council agenda and she would handle the others.
Specifically, since Jessica has followed the city’s ordeal with arsenic levels, she was there to pick up on an arsenic-related agenda item.
Nothing came of it anyway.
But here’s the deal: The city – other governments as well – have to make decisions that are often complicated.
If I’m to report on that for the paper having that information available would help me do my job better.
But typically when presenters are making a case to council, the school board or commissioners court, to cite a few examples, they rarely consider making handouts available to the press in addition to the governments.
They should, we can better explain what they do with more information.
Maybe it’s the elected officials who frown on us getting the same handout they received.
There’s a digital agenda packet of council meetings, but it doesn’t cover everything presented.
Monday was an example of insufficient information at commissioners court.
An agenda called for discussion and possible action to accept an application for tax abatement by Tenaris Tube Corporation.
But the only information in the packet I receive for county meetings had a single sheet that contained the agenda item I mentioned above and nothing else.
County Judge Bobby Seiferman said the action called for was accepting the application, or not.
I thought there would be more in the packet about what’s planned.
By comparison, many applications for abatements contain details about the length of the abatement and tell how many people will be hired to construct the operation and later to operate it.
I asked County Auditor Kristen Kubecka about the scarcity of information and she said she didn’t have much background either.
The vote on accepting the application was 3-2 for, with the judge and Commissioners Mike Estlinbaum and Troy Shimek voting for and Commissioners Bubba Cook and Bubba Frick casting dissenting votes.
I’m not questioning Tenaris’ plans.
The process is just similar to countless other times when information is guarded in open and closed meetings alike.
