Questions on city coverage

The McCook Mayor and City Manager have a concern with the way news has been reported in "the local print media."

The City Manager feels that "the local print media" has confused the public on certain aspects of the proposed city facility, and the Mayor has written a letter to the editor, published Wednesday, claiming our coverage was misleading.

We take our responsibility to report to the public very seriously, and devote a lot of resources to covering the city affairs, as well as the county, school board, and various other entities that use taxpayer funds to conduct their business. The Gazette sends a reporter to sit through even the most mundane meeting so that we can write a comprehensive review of the issues before the governing body. We are often the only member of the public at the meeting.

After spending many evening hours at government meetings, Gazette reporters spend even more time writing up the story from notes and documents. The morning following a meeting is often spent calling officials to obtain clarifications and finishing the story by 10 a.m. It is not unusual for Gazette staff to devote several hours to cover one single meeting.

I've reviewed all of the stories dating back to mid-April that we have written about the proposed Municipal Facility and can not find where we have mis-informed the public. I've compared our stories to the official minutes that city staff writes and are published in our legal notices section several weeks after the meeting. I've asked both the Mayor and the citizen that appeared before the Council to tell me which article(s) misinformed the public about the Municipal Facility, and neither could give me a specific example.

The process of determining the best action for the facility has been fluid. Questions such as where to locate the facility, how to fund it, whether to build two separate facilities for the fire and police, or just one joint facility have been debated in city council and reported in the Gazette. Ultimately, the option to build one facility to house the fire, police, and administration on the old West Ward site and using a bond issue to be paid back with sales tax funds over the next seven years was the option preferred by the City Council. They will take that issue to the voters on Nov. 9.

We reported on July 8: "The McCook City Council reviewed a preliminary architects rendering of the proposed McCook Municipal Facility ... Council will seek voter approval for the sales tax funded project this fall and hopes to break ground in the Spring of 2011."

We reported on July 9: "With sales tax revenues projected to continue to stay flat, City Council has agreed to approach voters with a project this fall that would ask for a seven year bond against the sales tax, in the amount of $3.5 to $3.75 million, for the construction of a new Municipal Complex to house Fire, Police and City offices."

We reported on July 16 under the headline Building footprint, ballot on agenda: "The McCook City Council will finalize the building footprint of proposed municipal facilities and agree to a budget amount for the project at Monday's semi-monthly meeting, 7:30 p.m., at Memorial Auditorium. Council members will review and approve the language to be put before voters in the November election, seeking construction approval of the multi-million dollar municipal facility that will house Police and Fire Departments as well as City administration staff."

We reported on July 20: "The cost projections for construction of the facility to house Police and Fire Departments as well as City Staff were listed as $5,837,350, with a reduced option which the council preferred to pursue at $5,218,200 ... The sales-tax-funded structure will provide significant facility upgrades to all departments based out of it, as well as the ability to share a single public entrance. City Council chambers would be handicap accessible, and the police department would get a significant upgrade to its interview facilities as well as covered parking for eight police squad cars."

Other reports published earlier in the process informed the public on the need for the facilities. In a report published May 14 when we covered the open house at the current public safety center, the headline read "City: Facilities make tough jobs harder to do."

The article spoke of cramped quarters, forced use of aging equipment because newer models would not fit in the space at the current safety center, overhead doors getting stuck, and a labyrinth of a floor plan and logistical problems.

The stories may be confusing because the issues are complex. We count on an educated public to read all reports in their entirety. There is no way we can get the entire story into the headline or into the first two lines of text. Repeating the same information in numerous stories becomes an irritation to readers who follow the issues closely. We do a lot of reiterating in an attempt to provide a complete picture in the story. How much is enough is a judgement call.

We appreciate the Mayor's letter to the editor and hope that it helps to clarify any issues that are of concern to voters.

Face-To-Face

In a meeting Wednesday afternoon with the City Manager and Mayor, we sat down and discussed their concerns about Gazette coverage. They feel that we are harder on the city than we are on the county and the school board when it comes to covering budgets and other issues. A point well taken.

In some ways, the city is a victim of its own openness. Their budgeting process allows for three public work sessions when department heads and the City Manager present a proposed budget to council. Each department head is questioned. The documentation we are provided fills a 3-inch notebook and outlines expenditures line item by line item. We report not only on the total department spending as compared to previous budgets, but also any line items that had a significant change, both increase and decrease.

We listened to their concerns, they listened to ours. We appreciate the time they devoted to us (well over an hour). In the end, we were not able to come up with any magic bullet that would make every citizen totally comprehend the issues involved, especially the financial ones.

Even in our face-to-face meeting, where we had the benefit of a raised eyebrow and a puzzled look on our face to communicate our understanding, there were times when we were not talking the same language. Both sides had the opportunity to say, "Hey, wait a minute, explain that issue further because it doesn't make sense to me." That is not something that a reader of a newspaper article or a listener to a radio program can do.

And the old adage, "easier said than done" holds especially true when writing concise stories about financial matters. Case in point: trying to explain the use of a 1 ½ percent sales tax, divided using various percentages between property tax relief, economic development, and other improvement projects, is difficult to do verbally. It is even more confusing when it has to be written out.

Terminology also presents challenges. The meaning of the word "freeze" may mean different things to different people. Our reporter used that word in the story about the Public Works' budget and took that word to mean that the line item had a zero balance. The City Manager thought it meant something different.

In the future, we will try to use more charts and grids to highlight totals in the budget and other financial information.

In the Same Boat

In our meeting, the Mayor pointed out that both City staff and the staff of the Gazette are faced with several similarities.

We both devote a lot of resources and energy to the betterment of the community. City staff has been working tirelessly to improve parks, walking trails, and cleaning up unsightly properties. The City has been diligent in holding property taxes and water costs at a level rate. They are, and should be, very proud of that fact.

The Gazette staff has been working diligently to cover community events, outstanding citizens who have given back, as well as the positive improvements throughout the community. We are proud of the fact that we cover public meetings and provide that information to our readers.

However, both City staff and Gazette staff receive a lot of negative feedback. We both feel that we are rarely given credit for the positive things we do. We both have a responsibility that we take seriously. City is responsible for keeping the financial health of the community in tact. That may mean that they have to make decisions that others would not agree with. The media is responsible for reporting all the news, good and bad. That may mean that we have to report a story that gives the community a "black eye."

We're both easy targets. Who do you love to hate more, the politicians or the media?

Clarification Needed

We were confused by one statement in the Mayor's letter. The Mayor stated "The (City's) general fund budget increased only 2.14 percent and the Consumer Price Index or CPI increased nearly 4.49 percent this past year so the general fund budget increased less than the CPI."

The 4.49 percent increase in the CPI is not jiving with the national news releases we are receiving which states that CPI rose closer to 2.5 or 3 percent in the past year. The City Manager told us that he was using the CPI for the period from February, 2009 through January, 2010.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics web site, the CPI -All Urban Consumers - was at 212.193 index points in February 2009 and increased to 216.687 index points in January 2010. That is a 4.49 INDEX-POINT increase, which comes out to a 2.12 PERCENT increase. That would means the city budget is right in line with the CPI.

Do we think that the Mayor mis-led the public in his Letter to the Editor? Not at all. We're probably reading the numbers differently than the Mayor is.

But this is another example of where further explanation is needed. When and if we publish a national story later in the year claiming that the CPI increased a lesser percentage, the public may be confused.

In the End

In the end, the Mayor pointed out that we both want what is best for the City of McCook and Southwest Nebraska. When positive things happen in our area, the City benefits and so does the newspaper. The citizens also benefit. When there is a lot of negativity, morale is low in the City offices, as well as the newspaper offices. A new city municipal building is something that the City and I, as well as other members in our news room, would like to see happen. If it were up to us, it would. It's not up to us -- it is up to all of the voters of the City of McCook.