"Unknown unknowns"
The City Beat had an epiphany Sunday morning while trying vainly to fall asleep.
I've been going about reporting on City Hall the wrong way, letting the politicians drive the agenda rather than the other way around. Just because it's being talked about at City Council doesn't mean it's important. The stuff that's not being talked about, the problems not yet discovered -- that's what reporters are supposed to figure out.
The current paradigm is mostly meeting-centric, meaning many story ideas emerge out of meetings. That's so ass-backwards I can't even begin to describe how stupid I feel for not seeing it sooner. Readers, why haven't you called the City Beat to task??
The new paradigm will be totally issue-centric. That means looking at the city as a whole, not just its governance. I'll continue to attend council meetings, of course, but that's not the full story. The council is obsessed with property taxes because voters are obsessed with property taxes. But the question I rarely ask is, what are we getting for our taxes? Are we getting the best bang for the buck?
I fault myself for not paying attention to things like potholes, which some or many residents care about. And the frightening reason why I don't might be because there's no pothole meetings every week.
Sigh...
Anyway, don't expect coverage to change right away. The things I write about -- taxes, dikes, elections, tribal casino -- are still important, but there's way more to city government than that. The question is what am I missing?
As defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said: "There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."
Damn, I wish I knew what I didn't know. Blogosphere, I'm counting on you.
I've been going about reporting on City Hall the wrong way, letting the politicians drive the agenda rather than the other way around. Just because it's being talked about at City Council doesn't mean it's important. The stuff that's not being talked about, the problems not yet discovered -- that's what reporters are supposed to figure out.
The current paradigm is mostly meeting-centric, meaning many story ideas emerge out of meetings. That's so ass-backwards I can't even begin to describe how stupid I feel for not seeing it sooner. Readers, why haven't you called the City Beat to task??
The new paradigm will be totally issue-centric. That means looking at the city as a whole, not just its governance. I'll continue to attend council meetings, of course, but that's not the full story. The council is obsessed with property taxes because voters are obsessed with property taxes. But the question I rarely ask is, what are we getting for our taxes? Are we getting the best bang for the buck?
I fault myself for not paying attention to things like potholes, which some or many residents care about. And the frightening reason why I don't might be because there's no pothole meetings every week.
Sigh...
Anyway, don't expect coverage to change right away. The things I write about -- taxes, dikes, elections, tribal casino -- are still important, but there's way more to city government than that. The question is what am I missing?
As defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said: "There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."
Damn, I wish I knew what I didn't know. Blogosphere, I'm counting on you.
posted by Tu-Uyen at 6:02 PM
9 Comments:
Thomas Jefferson said, Where the people fear government, there is tyranny. Where the government fears the people, there is democracy." You are right that there is several issues the city is not addressing that are not addressing,and not getting on the city agenda.
I am glad to hear this news. I hope this means that you and the the rest of you fellow reporters will be out beating the bushes for stories and not just printing word for word from press releases received from city departments. Bring on the investigative journalism.
The 2006 GF city budget states that ONLY ~25% of the cities income is derived from property tax. GF needs to reduce that by 15% and gain revenue elsewhere. Look at the proposed 2006 Denver budget, (http://www.denvergov.org/admin/template3/forms/Summary%2006.pdf, pie chart doc page 29)
they derive only 9.4% of their revenue from property taxes! Tell your readers what is wrong with the GF tax structure!
Anonymous No. 1: What are the issues we aren't addressing?
Anonymous No. 2: I realize you might not mean what you said as an insult but "printing word for word from press releases" is a practice that no reporter worth his salt would ever engage in. Have you read the paper?
Anonymous No. 3: I've checked the Denver budget and it relies on sales tax for a third of the total budget and nearly half of the operating budget. Given the volatility of sales taxes and given that they are regressive and given that we have to compete with Fargo for shoppers, do you really think that's wise?
The only other viable option is to use income tax transfers from the state. Minnesota does a lot of this and the down side is you lose local control over your revenue. Would that be wise?
GF badly needs lower taxes - fewer retirees would leave (at least full time) and more families could be attracted to the city if taxes were lower.
This is not a knock on city government, but everything can be made more efficient. How about a story on privatizing different areas of city services?
The Park Board and the School District need more in-depth looks at how there are spending tax money. Too often - a school or park superintendent make capital projects as priorities, because those projects best help them job hop. IMO, the school and park board have too many parents with vested interests running them (and spending unccessary money on questionable pet programs.) Both these boards need oversight from people that are looking out for the best interest of the entire community.
Anonymous No. 4, you make a good point about privatization. I've thought of it myself. The thing is it wouldn't save a whole lot of property taxes.
First, utilities, which make up a good chunk of the budget, are paid for with user fees.
And second, a very large percentage, I want to say three-quarters, of the operating budget (which is for services other than utilities and public works) goes to the police and fire departments. Public safety is not something most voters would want to mess with.
Tu-uyen:
Are police and fire protection more expensive then other similarly sized cities? How can western and southern cities of the size of GF have such lower tax rates. It can't all be due to issues like snow removal, can it?
Has anyone really understood the fiasco that is the water treatment plant - how the design was so badly botched because GF was so interested in getting a local engineering firm, Biodigester, to prove out a unique design? Unfortunately, the unique design doesn't work, the treatment plant expenses are much higher than what it should have been, and Biodigester is no more.
Also, what would be the effect of in-filling all vacant lots or undeveloped areas of the city with in-place utilities? In-filling with taxable properties would increase the property tax receipts without necessarily increasing city costs proportionally.
Anonymous#4
I'm curious about what private sector groups are doing in the city. A couple of years ago, the New Horizons group had some rather big plans near the Alerus, but since then haven't heard a peep.
Yes!! The blogosphere came through. All good ideas. They're so good I fear the competition will use them. Stay off my blog, Lacey and Milo.
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