Good Government Equals Good Image

On Tuesday in this space, Spokane County commissioners read deserved compliments about some of their recent land-use decisions. If they had clipped out that editorial and turned it over, they would have found a news story reporting that they are worried about how to improve their image. The story said commissioners are inviting proposals for a new and perhaps more expensive public relations aide.

In the interests of saving the taxpayers some money and continuing for a moment longer in a constructive vein, we would like to point out that the complimentary editorial did not spring from the imagination of some taxpayer-funded flack … er, public relations professional.

Good image comes from good policy. A government that is open, receptive and responsive toward the public needs no spin doctors. The praise comes naturally.

Conversely, no amount of public relations can save public officials who hunker down with their cronies and staffs, making decisions out of view and assigning PR specialists to keep the public at bay and to spoon-feed sanitized information to the huns outside the gate.

Regrettably, if the commissioners want to spend more of the public’s money on an image-maker, they will have a lot of company.

Government agencies spend millions on PR professionals whose duties, more often than not, amount primarily to image-polishing. Without this kind of help, who knows what might happen to a government agency when the Legislature is writing a budget, when the voters consider a school levy or when the boss is up for re-election? In effect, the taxpayers are paying for themselves to be lobbied. And that is wrong.

Lest every public relations office in government bury us with angry press releases and self-serving letters to the editor, we must add that some PR professionals perform a useful service. Some are allowed by their bosses to be knowledgeable enough about agency activities that they provide the public with accurate, timely information. Some are invaluable at connecting inquiring members of the public with knowledgeable officials. Some provide notice of news events and opportunities for public input.

But good public relations professionals aren’t buffers or propagandists. They’re only conduits. The difficulties occur when their bosses expect them to interfere with the honest flow of information. That never works for long.

The public doesn’t need propaganda from its government; it needs service. Good service and wise policy are better for an agency’s image than a whole department full of lobbyists and spinmeisters.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board