At any given City of Bay City Council meeting, you’ll hear one or two councilmembers pushing governmental transparency while badmouthing “the media” in the same breath.
Those moments have also included sleight comments about how “local media” outlets skew the truth about what’s going on in the governmental spheres.
It’s not just the city council, but extends readily to other elected officials, boards, and organizations in equal rotation.
There always just seems to be someone who isn’t happy with the coverage we provide Bay City and Matagorda County.
We’re halfway through our 11th year as this newspaper and I’m well aware of the fact that we can’t please everyone.
In fact, I’ve known that all my life and have endured all manner of judgment from peers and authority figures alike.
I grew up dealing with bullies on a daily basis from my elementary years well up until my senior year of high school - I can handle any and all name-calling up until you try to call me a liar.
Among the city’s May 3 election for council positions are three proposed changes to the city charter.
As of press time Monday afternoon, if you head to the city’s website and navigate through their “Transparency in Government” link, you’re taken to a list of links to other webpages and digital documents – except for the “Municipal Elections” link that goes nowhere.
Not to mention the landing page doesn’t link you to the city’s charter either!
Let me save you some time and outline those charter changes for you as:
Proposition A – Change council terms so that two positions are up for election every year.
Proposition B – Change the mandatory meeting of council to no less than one time per month.
Proposition C – To allow council discretion to waive the City Manager residency requirement of city manager if they reside in Matagorda County within a 20-mile radius of city limits.
Those propositions were chosen at the Feb. 11 council meeting and City Attorney Anne Marie Odefey and council have said that those propositions and explanations would be available to residents in English and Spanish.
Well, so far the city’s website only has them in English along with two English mentions in the “#BayCityTx4U” quarterly newsletter shared on Facebook last week - nothing in Spanish!
Early voting for the General Election and any other special-called elections starts on Tuesday, April 22, so it seems like time is running out to inform voters in my book.
It’s starting to really look like “governmental transparency” is only for English-speaking residents rather than doing the due diligence to spread information out as far and wide as possible.
I don’t know if the fault rests with council, the city attorney, or City Manager Scotty Jones.
But, I do know one thing for certain, there is no bias or slant to our news coverage based on the facts we’ve got on hand at press time.
