Many on this forum have questioned the leadership of our city government, especially after the report in the San Antonio newspaper that reported that our city had thrown in the towel on a Washington Mutual call center. I've spent the last few days talking to various people at city hall about the situation, and here's what I've learned:
First of all, economic development projects are top secret. The city doesn't even use the names of the companies when they discuss them. For example, Dell was project 'm' until mid-summer. They never comment until the company tells them they can comment. That goes for the mayor, city staff, chamber folks, governor's staff etc. They don't comment. If they had a reputation of mentioning businesses in the media, no matter how vague, it would cost our city future opportunities.
So that explains why the mayor and many other city leaders defer questions from the local media.
I printed off the posts on the call center thread and let several city leaders review the posts. Their response? One city leader stated, "I don't think I've ever seen people take less information and draw so many definitive conclusions. I can assure you the information being discussed and conclusions that are being drawn are ludicrous. One person says it's a call center, and suddenly it's a call center. One person says they are $8 per hour jobs, and suddenly they are $8 per hour jobs. Each responder takes the previous information as fact. By the end of the posts, the facts had taken a long vacation. You can't treat posters like journalists."
This particular city leader, unknown to this forum, spent a great amount of time reviewing this with me, and I appreciate him/her taking the time out of a very busy schedule.
I must say I agree with him/her. There's so much that we don't know that's going on behind the scenes at city hall. For example, the Dell plan was rolling long before the media ever found out, and even when they found out, little information was given until the state was chosen.
Even before OKC was chosen over Norman, our city leaders said nothing. And they said nothing for good reason. Read my comments above.....they explain
why.
Anyways, your side has already been presented. I just wanted to present the side of our city government.
Bookmarks