Every wonder why the mayor, council, city staff, etc. don't respond to important issues you ask them about? Well I found a partial answer today while reviewing public records. Some of the city staff tell them not to. Here is full write up.
COB Don't Respond to Citizens Internal Directive.
While reviewing public e-mails today I found Eric Johnston admitting to directing the council NOT to respond to citizens. In fact, when one member of the Broadband Advisory Group asked to back out he called her instead to make sure it wasn't part of the public record. Here is the statement. You can get the full e-mails by contacting the COB public records office.
Eric says:
"Often times when sending the entire city council an email we’ll include a statement at the end to the effect of “PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND” to this email to avoid the possibility of a meeting occurring via email."
Of course, all the council members, mayor, staff, etc. have to do is copy everyone involved. So what Eric is really doing here is making sure the council does not talk to citizens about topics he wants to control, like protecting big telecom and special interests. I'm sure his department isn't the only department doing this.