Why is it so difficult to get any information about where our federal stimulus money will be spent? Will the money be used to give teachers a pay raise or will it be used to complete a loop to nowhere or will we be so inept not to apply for additional federal funds aimed at specific environmental projects?
My attempts to get information have not been fruitful and the answers that I have gotten from elected representatives are muddled, unclear, non-specific and total generalizations. I am convinced that the difficulty in getting clear-cut specifics from those that should know is because they don't know either.
What I am asking is simple and not complicated. Let’s suppose that you received a $10,000 bonus from your employer and you informed your spouse. The first question would be "what are you going to spend the money on?” Your answer could be that you will fix the car, buy a new central air conditioner, take a trip to Florida or simply put it in savings. Now that is exactly what citizens want to know. The public wants to know how will the county, city and school district spend the money.
The answer should not be difficult to answer. My assumption is that a needs assessment of sorts has already been done by each entity. So why can't we make that public. Perhaps the submitted preliminary reports did not have such specificity but that doesn't matter.
President Obama made it clear and emphatic that these federal appropriations would have total transparency and accountability. In my opinion we don't have that here nor does it exist across the country.
The public turns to our news media to solicit this information, to analyze it and then present it to the public. That is not happening either. I am lead to believe that our local media chooses not to address this important story because they find it too complicated and time consuming to research.
Perhaps many do not remember Eddie Rodrigues. Eddie served as school board member, city councilman and other positions. Eddie was a good man and a consummate public servant. He would force those with such information to explain it clearly, free of bureaucratic jargon. If any official or administrator tried to gloss over his question, Eddie would not allow it. It was not unusual to see Eddie going over handed material at a coffee shop, in anticipation of that day's board meeting. Eddie always got us answers.
