District Attorney backs charter-update group

Beth Heckert, Jackson County District Attorney, tells Jackson County to offer fee discount.

It was a "win" on two principles:

     1. Commissioner salary information is in the general public interest.

     2. The charter-update group, Jackson County for All, is not old-style media but it has the capacity to disseminate information to the public.

This controversy was never about the money. The charter-update group could easily have paid the county fee. The District Attorney decision, directing the county to offer a 25% fee discount, is important because the District Attorney's decision agreed that there is widespread and legitimate public interest in commissioner salaries. It also recognized that the media landscape is different today than it was back when "the news" arrived in a printed newspaper.

This blog looks at intended and unintended messages in politics. District Attorney Heckert's decision clarifies that the county -- for whatever reason -- was bending over backwards to say "no," and was asserting a weak argument to justify the decision. I regret that the county took that position because it just looks so bad for it. I want the county to be well respected. The easiest inference for the public to make is that the county wanted to obstruct sharing the data. That implies that someone -- presumably the commissioners -- thought the data unflattering in some way and that it weakened their position of opposition to the current system in which commissioners vote their own salaries.

Here is the District Attorney's written decision:

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