Berry's integrity stained by aide

Integrity is the correlation
between one's words and
one's actions.

Mayor Richard Berry
would have stakeholders
believe that he is all about
transparency.

Pursuant to that end,
he held a news conference
awhile back to celebrate
the birth of River City's
own Sunshine Portal.

His words would have
listeners believe he wants
stakeholders to know the truth about the spending of their power and their resources.

I readily concede that the Sunshine Portal is a huge step forward.

Yet, it does nothing about the most sinister aspect of transparency in government; public information officers (lower case). More people will go to a pio to get a specific question answered, than will visit the city website, no matter how easy it is to surf.

The question is; when a stakeholder goes to a pio for the truth, will s/he get it?

Let's face it, pios are not hired to serve the public; they are hired to serve their bosses.

I will offer an example for no purpose except as a single illustration. I do not intend to argue, nor would I ever argue, there is no such thing as a pio who will respond to any legitimate question, candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.

I will aver, I have not yet met that particular public servant.

A local blogger and photojournalist was writing a tribute piece to firefighters and youngsters who would be firefighters, link. For color in the piece; a photograph of two senior firefighters sitting in a car.

This is not about what they were doing, sitting in the car.

Bralley asked the Fire Department PIO to identify the men in the photo. She refused; unless and until he justified the "goodness" of his interest.

The question was a legitimate one, and the response should have been candid, forthright, and honest. It was not.

That was the question I was trying to articulate to Mayor Berry during the Sunshine Portal news conference. He did not answer the question well, in no small part because I did not ask the question well.

So, I went back to the Mayor to see if I could rephrase the question in order to fine tune the answer. I found out that you can't just ask the Mayor a question; you must first make your way through a line of defense manned by pios.

I get it. If the mayor is doing his job, he doesn't have time to respond to every question being asked, even the legitimate ones.

But if he is going to hire people to answer in his stead; he is reasonably responsible for their (lack of) candor, forthrightness, and honesty.

Enter one; Chris T. Huffman-Ramirez, Berry's Director of Communications and a pio.

It was through him that I was compelled to ask my questions(s). They were legitimate questions and he did not respond to them candidly, forthrightly and honestly.

Which means Mayor Richard Berry did not respond to them candidly, forthrightly and honestly.

One such question;

Will he (Berry) provide for a venue where a complaint can be filed against a PIO who is obfuscating the telling of the truth?

... pios like the Fire Department PIO and like the mayor's
own pio; Chris T. Huffman-Ramirez?

Huffman-Ramirez ignored question completely.

Another such question;

Who should command the loyalty of a Public Information Officer; the public or the public servant?

Huffman-Ramirez' answer to that question;

"... this Administration has a great track record with our local media. In fact, this Administration could argue that we are one of the most transparent municipalities in the nation. Mayor Berry has a very clear philosophy that City employees working in any capacity, PIO's included, understand that ultimately taxpayers are our boss and we work for them.

Candid? Forthright? Honest?

Not!

And now to the really disturbing part. Huffman-Ramirez revealed that in the eyes of the Berry administration; the press (despite a constitutionally protected human right tor be "a free press" with or without the government's consent, approval, or recognition) can be divided into to groups;

"credentialed local and national media", and
"constituents"

The First Amendment, quoted in significant part reads;

The Berry Administration "... shall make no law ...
abridging the freedom of ... the press."

Mayor Richard Berry does not have the authority to credential the press any further than they are already credentialed by the First Amendment. And Chris T. Huffman-Ramirez does not have the right to decide who and who is not a member of the press.

Who is he to say

"... our team of public information officers are extremely responsive to our credentialed local and national media." (emphasis added)

and everyone else can go suck eggs?

When I asked Huffman-Ramirez;

"... who (he) thinks has the authority to credential anyone beyond the credentialing provided by the first amendment, and further what standards s/he applies?"

he would not respond.

He would answer the question neither candidly, nor forthrightly,
nor honestly.

And neither will, apparently, his boss Mayor Richard Berry.

By means of a side/endbar; I once asked Richard Berry if, in the absence of any of the leadership of the APS willing to do so, was he willing to step up as a role model for the 90,000 students in the APS, of the APS Student Standards of Conduct?

He was not.

photos Mark Bralley

cc Huffman-Ramirez upon posting;
should he care to respond, refute, or rebut.