I’ve deliberately waited several days to gauge reaction to Charlotte City Attorney Mac McCarley’s declaration that nosy bloggers, the politically active, and “Libertarians” are making life hard on him. So hard, in fact, that he relates that the public is being harmed due to city officials pro-actively seeking to obscure their activity by not putting anything in writing.
The most telling reaction? That there was basically none. Aside for the reliably level-headed and civic-minded, no one much noticed. One might think that any sitting city councilperson might at least wonder about the propriety of McCarley’s adversarial stance vis-a-vis the citizens they represent. Nope. Nothing.
To recap, McCarley said he had no problem with the Uptown paper of record asking for emails. That was a “legitimate” request. The illegitimate?
Disgruntled, unsuccessful bidders wanting to know everything about a bid process and the other people in it, bloggers wanting information for their shots at the government, the alternative press who has no particular sense of reasonableness in what they ask for, the gadflies and the Libertarians who will admit to you they are looking to bog down government, potential litigants shopping for a claim, political opponents of current officials, and then the idly curious.
Boo-hoo. McCarley seems chronically incapable of understanding the difference between private-sector and state activity. In sum, on the grand scale of efficiency vs. transparency, government aims diverge from those of the private, for-profit world. Or they should.
Even more troubling is the implication that disclosure to the mainstream media satisfies the state’s need for disclosure of its activities and those of local officials. Charlotte is a poster-child for that not being true. Case in point, State Rep. Tricia Cotham.
Cotham has been repeatedly described by CMS as being on unpaid leave from CMS, yet she shows up in the Uptown paper of record’s CMS salary database still as an East Meck asst. principal earning $57,000 a year. This was pointed out to an Uptown paper of record reporter several weeks ago, they said they’d look into the confusion and — nothing.
Here’s a better one. Mecklenburg County tax records indicate that CMS Board Member Vilma Leake owes property tax on property listed in her name going back to 2005. Of the almost $800 owed, over $100 is interest and penalties. How many times has Leake been on the ballot without this info ever being reported by the local McClatchy outlet?
Even the plain facts of the city’s most recent budget have not been reported accurately, yet McCarley seriously believes that local government receives adequate scrutiny from “legitimate” sources. The suggestion would be laughable were the city attorney not such an important and powerful position in the local power structure.
In fact, leave the man alone. Go to work, pay your taxes, “vote” in the “elections,” and shut up.
