Is Anybody Listening?

Is anybody reading this blog? That's a question that's on the mind of anyone who blogs. Are my postings just turning into random bits floating through the ethernet or does anyone actually read them and pay attention.

Apparently, I have a readership.

How do I know this? Well, there are those of you who are grateful for an inside look at a rather opaque agency - ACHD - and who have told me so.

And then there are others like one ACHD Commissioner who has scolded me for being irresponsible in reporting on what happens at public meetings. See ACHD doesn't tape public meetings that occur before and after the main Commission meeting held at the dais in front of TVTV. When I've brought up that a lot of direction is given at these pre and post meetings and that they should be taped, this same Commissioner doesn't want to do that.

All I'm doing on this blog is what the Statesman should be doing - reporting on issues that may be of interest to the taxpaying public. These include issues like the proposed transit mall machinations, the budget cuts ACHD must sustain, and in the future, what we might do under the stimulus money should any come our way.

But according to this Commissioner, this is irresponsible. Well, I reject that stilted kind of thinking. These meetings are open to the public. Granted they are at an inconvenient time in an inconvenient place and are not really welcoming. But they are public.

And until we start taping these meetings and providing a paper trail for the public to see how decisions are made and how money is spent, then I guess in the words of Old BlueEyes, "call me irresponsible".