In general, I feel that Hillsborough County runs a very good government. No government is perfect, and each one certainly has its low points, but overall I think they do a good job.
For the Sheriff’s Office and the Jail, there is always a lot of bad press. Especially this year when the paraplegic got dumped from his chair and Callaway made a mistake and said “My Bad”. But then the panel that reviewed the jail showed that they actually run a very efficient operation. All the agencies impressed me with the way they are moving into the 21st century with having good technology.
People tend to think Government is their enemy. These people usually think of it just like that, too: Government, with a capital G, as some monolithic entity that is after your money and out to make life inconvenient for you. And it is true there is a lot of bureaucracy and red tape in government. But it is there to help you, and really the issue is lack of involvement in government’s affairs. From the public meetings we attended, we noticed that the actual “public” was sparse or invisible.
The availability of public records may be hindered by the public officials’ issues with delivering them, and they do need more training. However, I found that my experience with doing my profile that the staff was more than accomodating. But even still, the people need to be more involved, tracking what their government is doing and how their elected officials are voting.
Because the volume of work required to do this would be too great for the average citizen, it falls on the role of the journalist. The government correspondents get paid to go and find out these things and report them to the citizenry so they can be better informed. However, lately media has fallen under the spell of sensationalism, the sound bite, and partisan-biased reporting. This has shaken the public’s confidence in the media. Also, the cost of newspapers is no longer worth the quality in cases such as the new Tribune format. The rise of the internet has also led to the decline of newspapers…who’s going to pay for what they get for free? But for local government reporting, newspapers are still the citizens’ best bet.
I think both the papers and the government could do better in advertising public meetings. Usually if there is an issue that may be important, it isn’t in the paper until the day it happens, which may be too late for some people to schedule going. And unless you have a good reason (like, say, a Public Affairs Reporting class), you aren’t going to be checking the Hillsborough County website’s calendar on a daily basis.
I think this class has given me a little more faith in my public officials than I may have had before. Seeing them in person, and not just newspaper photos, makes you see them in a different light. But I think the real changes for Hillsborough County have begun after this election. The defeats of Brian Blair and Buddy Johnson will hopefully restore some confidence in the County Commission and the Elections Office.