Councilman criticized for live blogging
From soldiers to stay-at-home moms, Internet blogs have given personal forums to anyone with a computer and some spare time.
Elected officials of all political stripes are among those to join the blogging party. They use their Web posts to spout off on issues and recap their civic activities for the day.
Lakewood City Councilman Walter Neary’s blog, Neary-Sighted, tells readers about items city leaders will discuss at the next meeting. He also has posted photos of community events.
But over the past three weeks, Neary’s practice of blogging up-to-the-minute accounts of what people say during public meetings has met criticism from residents. They say the two-term elected leader isn’t giving the public his undivided attention.
The brouhaha began at the June 2 Lakewood City Council meeting. A group of parents disgruntled about the Clover Park School District’s choice for its superintendent decided to take its case to city leaders.
Neary could be seen typing on his laptop, his eyes shifting between the screen and the people speaking. His Internet post about their concerns was on his blog before the meeting ended around 10 p.m.
“As I sit here on the council dais tonight, we’re beginning to hear from a stream of parents during our open public comment period,” he opened.
His entry goes on to report what the parents told the council. But he also posed rhetorical questions about what authority the city has in school business, and he questioned the depth of the parents’ involvement:
“Are you going to school board meetings? You’ve got pain and frustration in your voice now. … But how many night meetings are you willing to go to? How many dinners will you skip? How much time with your children will you give up to be involved in the schools?”
At least one parent didn’t like Neary’s tone and the fact that he was blogging while parents were speaking. Kathi Loverin wrote a letter that was posted a week later on The Suburban Times, an online community blog about South Sound suburbs.
“He was too busy ‘being a reporter’ and writing to this group of people telling them how they need to get involved rather than listening to the very people who are involved,” she wrote. “I find it very disturbing that he would begin writing right in the middle of their comments session.”
Neary says he was trying to be transparent and give readers a real-time glimpse into a government official’s mind. But he also understands how some people might find it offensive. He promised not to blog until after meetings.
“What I was trying to do was explain the ‘mystery’ of government,” he said. “I experimented with a style during a meeting, and it didn’t work.”
In an age when information can reach millions of Web surfers in seconds, governments have relied on technology to better connect with the public. It was only a decade or so ago that they began communicating with constituents via e-mail.
Today, e-mail is key to their daily jobs. Some officials maintain their own Web sites. For several years, almost 150 members of the state Legislature have worked with laptops at their desk during the session.
Blogging among elected officials appears to be relatively new. Two members of the Seattle City Council maintain blogs.
Pat Mason, legal consultant for the Municipal Research Service Center, said he isn’t aware of blogging by government officials becoming a legal problem.
But they should remember that the same standards of open meeting and records laws apply to blogging, he said. They also need to make clear that their posts represent an individual opinion.
“It’s new technology, some of the same old questions,” Mason said.
Blogging live during meetings is almost unheard of for elected leaders. It’s sometimes done by independent news reporters.
Neary’s previous career as reporter and editor helps explain his interest in government transparency and blogging. He worked for newspapers in California and the South Sound from 1984 to 1999.
After Neary wrote in The Suburban Times that he’d blog only after meetings, he was seen typing on a laptop during a budget workshop meeting June 9.
That prompted another angry response from parent Mandy Chandler, which Neary posted on his blog: “I can multi-task (as most mothers can),” Chandler wrote, “but I would not be able to simultaneously digest the nuances of four different financial scenarios, revenue projections and potentials for cutbacks, all while entering a blog for posting at the same time.
“It seems rather self-serving, especially given the fallout from last Monday’s City Council meeting and your vow to not blog during meetings.”
Neary admits that he blogged during that second meeting. Of his earlier promise, he said he recalls saying only that he would not blog when residents speak.
Neary added that he expects more elected leaders to start maintaining blogs. “As younger people get elected, I think we’ll see more of that,” he said.
At last Monday night’s Lakewood City Council meeting, Neary sat without a laptop, though he did take notes on paper.
Brent Champaco: 253-597-8653
Staff writer Joseph Turner contributed to this report.
Walter Neary
Age: 47
Office: Lakewood city councilman
Family: Wife, Cindy; two children, JoAnna, 20, and Patrick, 16
Job: Public relations manager for Comcast
His blog: www.walterneary.net/blogger.html
