JUST AS the city commission’s deserved criticism for its initial decision to withhold the names of the five finalists for city manager, the commission members deserve praise for reversing that decision quickly.
Wise government is not a matter of always making the right decision, but of being flexible enough to recognize and correct mistakes.
Depending upon how it proceeded, the commission could have been within Kansas law if it had kept the names secret, In revealing the names, the commission was not admitting a violation of law, but a responsibility to give the people of Emporia transparent government beyond the letter of the law.
At each level of government, people elect others to represent them and to make decisions in their name. But that power of government is bestowed with the understanding that the people have the right to look over their representatives’ shoulders and give their comment and advice. Nowhere is this right so widely expected and exercised as in local government.
If Emporia’s city government has had a weak spot over the decades, it is that commissions have not been consistent or vigorous in seeking public advice on matters of community importance. Certainly, commissioners have always given attention to comments made by members of the public at commission meetings. But they have too seldom sought opinion outside of those meetings.
But a commission can never go far wrong if it works with the constant assumption that the people — even those who do not attend city commission meetings — are interested in the decisions being made in their name.
And the more the people know about how decisions are made, the more they trust their elected commissioners to make those decisions.