Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 2, 1994 TAG: 9407040105
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It happened in Norfolk Wednesday night, when Gov. Allen's welfare-reform commission abruptly adjourned a public hearing, turning away some citizens, including one single mother of three children, who'd waited two hours to speak.
The explanation was that several commission members had had a long, hard day of other meetings, and still had to travel long distances - one all the way to Bristol - to get home. Many might sympathize.
But some of the citizens probably had had long, hard days, too. Possibly they had to arrange for baby-sitters, or had taken time off from a job, to be at the public hearing - and had done so because they believed the commission should hear of their experiences with the welfare system.
No wonder they left feeling frustrated and angry, denouncing the so-called citizens' hearing as a cynical ruse. Said one: "This was nothing more than a photo opportunity."
Which is not to pick on the welfare-reform commission. Regrettably, it followed a bad example that's become SOP for General Assembly committees and many other commissions and governmental entities alleging to seek "broad-based public input." Too often, members of blue-ribbon panels get puffed up with their own importance and plain forget that it's the public interest they're about - that they're there to accommodate citizens, not vice versa.
Miss Manners might recommend that they take a quickie sensitivity-training course, to raise awareness as to what may come across to strangers as rude and arrogant. Quicker still, they could look in the mirror and ask themselves honestly if they like the public-official image they convey.
by CNB