JAMES MADISON QUOTE - 1822

"A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives."

SCOTTSBORO WEATHER - SUN & MOON RISE

Friday, January 31, 2014

Content Control - "Potter’s integrity shouldn’t be questioned," says local publisher.


Brad Shurett the Publisher of Scottsboro and Jackson County's Daily Sentinel stated, quote: "Potter’s integrity shouldn’t be questioned - Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Freedom of speech is one of the cornerstones on which this country was founded, even if that opinion is unfounded and based on rumors and bits and pieces of the truth – see Garry Morgan’s column from yesterday as an example...Again, everyone is entitled to an opinion. However, it would be much more beneficial if people relied more on fact and less on rumors and water cooler gossip when forming those opinions." (It would be "more beneficial" if Shurett knew what he was talking about.) Link to Shurett's column: http://thedailysentinel.com/columns/brad_shurett/article_1dcc1fe0-850b-11e3-aa66-001a4bcf887a.html  I can't give a link to my column, the publisher did not publish it on the online version. It was available in last Thursday's Daily Sentinel dated Jan. 23, 2014. To make a long story short my article was about, "...city leadership at the elected level failing to improve Scottsboro’s Employee Performance Evaluation System."


Shurett the Publisher writes about "freedom of speech" while actually censoring content about local government problems.

I wrote a rebuttal to Shuretts' opinion article as part of my weekly contractual installment.  Shurett censored my article and violated the terms of our contract.

Here is the article which was supposed to be published on January 30, 2014 -

A repeat from last Thursday’s column lead off paragraph and a reply to Mr. Shurett’s Friday column: “The City of Scottsboro has a problem with its performance appraisal system. This reoccurring historical problem is based on city leadership at the elected level failing to improve Scottsboro’s Performance Employee Evaluation System.” This comment is an opinion based on years of education and experience, it is not a rumor.
 A question of integrity, the City of Scottsboro’s Integrity concerning a fair and honest system of performance evaluations for each employee is questionable. That is not a rumor, it is an opinion.

Scottsboro does not have a system in place that utilizes an objective, measurable, performance appraisal system; it is a subjective, opinion based performance appraisal system. Every personnel problem coming before Scottsboro’s Personnel Board in the last 10 years, where a public meeting has been held that I have witnessed, has been the result of no contractual, objective performance appraisal standards.  This paragraph is not a rumor; it is both fact and opinion

Are our elected officials responsible for the integrity of an effective, objective system of performance standards?  YES.  Our elected officials must insure that all employees are accountable by the implementation of a fair and equitable set of objective, measurable performance standards.  That is not a rumor, that is a system of professional, accountable government.
As long as Scottsboro’s City Leadership are not working toward a modern system of objective, measurable, contractual performance standards the taxpayers have a liability. That is my opinion based on years of management education and experience, not a rumor.

It is also not a rumor but a fact that Scottsboro’s Street Department has been embroiled in numerous problems. Some of those problems have resulted in numerous personnel policy and law violations by city employees.
The Mayors integrity is not in question, there is a question of whether this historical problem will continue and Mayor Potter will take action to correct this deficiency in our city’s personnel management process. There is good reason for the citizens to be concerned – lawsuits from past and current employees, continuing problems in the Street Department, and a deficient personnel management appraisal system;  not rumors – concern, facts and opinion.
 
Garry Morgan
 
  Brad Shurett, the Publisher of the Daily Sentinel, claims what I had written was based on rumor and gossip - he is wrong.

Update: Censorship continues - this article's link and story was removed from al.com's Scottsboro Forum; it has been reposted on 02/02/14 at 9:37 PM, post # 9056.
 
 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have just read your post on local government policies concerning the scottsboro evaulation system?? Are you just writing to try to gain publicity? Your article is irrelevant-to read your article will answer your own questions as to why you were published online...Can you tell me why the evaluation system is so important? I could go on for days tearing your post apart but I will not....1-check out where you say this is based off "fact and opinion."2-Since I've been in Scottsboro a year now I have had the pleasure of meeting our mayor ..I have met several political figures across the nation and I will say that Mayor Potter goes above and beyond to lend an ear when even the smallest needs to be heard.My hat is off to such s man that is a fair and reasonable man...If your looking to write a story over unfair practuces head out west ...To me , in summary, your in a skillet getting ready to jump into a fire but seems if we d quit complaining and start trying to improve or help maybe Scottsboro would be what you want

Garry said...

A quote by you - "Can you tell me why the evaluation system is so important?" Yea, but regardless of what I tell ya, will it matter to you?

Then you go on to make this senseless and ridiculous attack, re: "If your looking to write a story over unfair practices head out west ...To me , in summary, your in a skillet getting ready to jump into a fire..."

The shortcoming in Scottsboro's Personnel Management & Evaluation System was identified many years ago by an investigator brought into the city to identify critical problem areas and solutions to resolve the problems of Scottsboro's personnel management system. To date not one of the Mayors, including the current one, has sought to initiate an objective, contractual performance standards evaluation system as the investigator recommended. Each Mayor has received examples and examples of needed changes to the evaluation system.

The actual problem in this case was the fact the newpaper publisher decided to support a political position instead of the people, he also broke a contract and displayed horrific manners. What's new?

Anonymous said...

The ole anonymous "brown nosing the mayor" comment. Morgan is correct, the investigator, affiliated with the University of Alabama, recommended an update to the antiquated performance appraisal system Scottsboro uses. There has been no update of the performance appraisal system per the investigation. However, there have been several undisclosed legal settlements of considerable funds relating to the lack luster appraisal and performance system.