OPINION: Public officials can’t charge for talking time

It’s not the first time Yearwood has blasted the Journal for its coverage, but it certainly is the most ludicrous. Piqued about a story involving a county employee’s comments to the Journal, Yearwood recently called all county leaders and department heads together and ordered that they tell their employees to not talk to the media and that anytime they talk to us, they should charge us for time over 15 minutes.

Yeah, right.

But this illegal policy won’t work. Yearwood’s reading of state law is wrong and no newspaper, including this one, will ever pay a dime to interview any public official or county employee for any amount of time. Public officials are paid by taxpayers and have a moral and ethical obligation to respond to questions from both the public and the press.

What is Mr. Yearwood trying to hide from the public?

The real problem here is that Mr. Yearwood’s administration is in a death spiral, much of it due to his own mismanagement of people and issues. This newspaper has been aggressive in covering those issues and the dozens of controversies the chairman has created since taking office.

We make no apologies for that. It’s our job to inform citizens about what their government officials are doing and how their tax dollars are being spent.

But like a lot of wayward public officials, Mr. Yearwood is now seeking to shoot the messenger when he doesn’t like what’s said about him or the decisions he makes as a public official.

It won’t work. We’re not going anywhere. We’re still going to talk to public officials and employees and we’ll continue to make open records requests for public documents involving the county government.

Chairman Yearwood can throw all the silly tantrums he wants about the Journal and our coverage of his administration. But we’re not going to play that kind of game. The news is the news is the news.