Here Comes The Sun
Yes it’s a predictable headline, but it did feel sunny like the upbeat Beatles number on Saturday morning to pick up the weekend Williamson County Sun and read the start of 3 pages of coverage on our controversial city attorney. The Sun was back in the saddle, guns a’blazing!
Council beat reporter Jamaal E. O’Neal on page 3 wrote up the forthcoming session scheduled for Tuesday, July 13, in a piece announcing council member Patti Eason’s agenda item inviting public input on recent press reports about the city attorney and related improprieties.
But star performer starting on page 1 was editor Ben Trollinger, who led us through an exhaustive recap of allegations made largely by investigative reporter Ken Martin, whose work you have only to scroll down here to see. The Sun contributed a nice piece of live transcript from a phone conversation with the city attorney, Mark Sokolow, that showed him in a clearly evasive mode.
Then came the editorial, which I assume was written by publisher Clark Thurmond. The editorial called for citizen input and outcry before the dais on Tuesday. Or rather, it foreshadowed that such events might occur, and should occur.
They may.
People are hard at work, and it’s hard to get them to turn out from a belief that council can be UN-corrupted just from their voices.
I personally believe that council can be led back to a course of open government, and out of its recent bunker mentality, but of course it’ll take muscle, and time. As to all this, we shall see.
In any event, it was good to have the Sun back in the field of struggle, like the old days: bearing witness, rooting around, looking for improprieties. This alone makes the difference to our struggle, we the citizens.
This nation was founded in the close company of a strong free press. When the press is strong we have open government, and good governance can only come from open government.
Georgetown until recently was famous for its open government and the quality of its governance. I have the belief that the people of this town will not tolerate mediocrity in government for very much longer.
