From the Nov. 6 edition:
Is it PR spinning or stonewalling?
Trustees of the South Orange County Community College District—the majority foursome— have become increasingly unresponsive to questions from legitimate news organizations about matters that concern district residents--you know, the taxpayers who pay the bills for this public institution.
The four trustees who make up the majority of the district's seven-member governing board either don't respond to telephone inquiries, or provide only cryptic answers to questions that cry for further explanation.
On another front, they have attempted to find someone—a public relations person—who can "control the press" on their behalf and deliver them from criticism.
Even district administrators who do answer telephone inquiries seem reluctant to respond fully to legitimate questions by representatives of news organizations.
And the leaders of the faculty union, a powerful voice in the district for many years, simply don't respond at all.
They are stonewalling, perhaps in the belief they're untouchable. Because of tenure, perhaps they are.
But if the people who are running this multi-million-dollar public entity, either in name or de facto, will not respond to questions by legitimate representatives of legitimate news organizations, where does that leave the taxpayers?
In the dark, we'd say. Whether they want to admit it, the college folks are answerable to a public constituency and news organizations are the conduits for information the constituency has a right to know.
The public has to wonder what these public officials and/or public employees are hiding. If they feel the need to be so secretive, can it be good? Is it in the interests of the tax-paying public?
Or is it that whatever they're doing won't stand up to public scrutiny? [End]
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In the same issue, a letter by Mr. Steven J. Fischer appears. It supports Raghu and bemoans the way the IWN has been “tainting” Raghu’s reputation.
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