I thought it was interesting that the N&R published a little advice from Mecklenburg County Manager Harry Jones regarding communication and openness in local government:

More than half the members of my board use laptops during our board meetings. This allows them to be “green” by eschewing a paper agenda in favor of online access. It also enables them to send and receive e-mails during the meeting, if they wish. The other members have this same access through cell phones or other portable devices. This makes it possible for constituents, advocates and others to communicate with board members during the meetings.

Here’s some more advice Jones might want to pass along: Take the heat when “untold thousands of dollars” disappears from the Department of Social Services.

In fairness, John Hammer pointed out that the difference between the county manager’s job and the city manager’s job —- which former N&R editorial page editor John Alexander evidently didn’t understand —- is the county manager has no control over various county boards, DSS being one of them. I assume Mecklenburg operates in a similar fashion — help me out if I’m wrong.