Blogs for Public Officials
May 2nd, 2007 at 1:07 pm by PSoTD
There aren’t too many public government officials out there with blogs. Do you know of any? Here’s a modest effort by Linda Kelly, Town Manager, Town of Fairfax, California, that was started a little more than a year ago. It’s a bit folksy or pressreleasey, depending on the post. But it makes you wonder, what if more government officials blogged? Would it lead to an improvement to government, or just more stuff that is ignored or abused?
I was a local government employee for years - a blog would have been out of the question. My boss would have seen it as a threat; the elected officials would have seen it as overshadowing them and cutting into their policy debates. I can understand why the Town Manager of Fairfax, CA would keep her blog press-releasy because that is the safe place to be.
Assuming that the environment were reshaped to allow more expression by the public employees, that would be a good thing. This is not to say that the unfettered expressions of those folks would make a great deal of difference, but a change in the atmosphere that could take the deliberations out of the back rooms and put a check on some of the outsized egos involved might be a big improvement.
Government Official Blogging…
Just wanted to share a thoughtful comment to a post. Yesterday, at Susie’s, I posted this:
But it makes you wonder,……