Frankly, no big deal to me. The city is not hiding the trip and the Clerk seems to have prepared in advance. To my knowledge, council members also attend conferences.
Our city has a small staff. New ideas and best practices come from networking and conferences such as this. I’ve been with many organizations who get too penny wise and poun…
Frankly, no big deal to me. The city is not hiding the trip and the Clerk seems to have prepared in advance. To my knowledge, council members also attend conferences.
Our city has a small staff. New ideas and best practices come from networking and conferences such as this. I’ve been with many organizations who get too penny wise and pound foolish by not investing in staff development and new ideas.
I agree that the timing isn’t the best, or the location. But my general points still stand.
I don’t recall the city ever “announcing” that staff are traveling for professional development, yet I know that they do. I’d be bothered if her attendance was not acknowledged, but it was.
I agree - Sounds like Stephanie Mendoza is going on an approved work-related trip. I agree the timing could be better with early voting, but based on her response to your question she put all of her ducks in a row before leaving.
I think the focus should on what she accomplished as clerk in the last 4 years. My understanding is that she organized and digitized a massive backlog of historical records. While not as flashy as an overseas trip during election time, sure does help the city function.
It is not the job of an investigative journalist (me) to write a fluff piece about all the things the Clerk has done the last four years, during the election season. You can find plenty of that in political content put out by candidates, including Ms. Mendoza's campaign.
It is absolutely newsworthy that the Clerk is going out of the country during the election. It's less newsworthy at other times and I probably wouldn't write about it unless there was another variable to the story. I am not being critical of her ability to take work trips, she's welcome to do that, but the Clerk does have responsibilities during the election, which I have pointed out in the story.
Frankly, no big deal to me. The city is not hiding the trip and the Clerk seems to have prepared in advance. To my knowledge, council members also attend conferences.
Our city has a small staff. New ideas and best practices come from networking and conferences such as this. I’ve been with many organizations who get too penny wise and pound foolish by not investing in staff development and new ideas.
Well the City didn’t exactly announce this, I had to do a lot of journalism here to even confirm this and get the comment.
but yeah I don’t disagree. I do think the timing is not good, which is why it’s newsworthy
I agree that the timing isn’t the best, or the location. But my general points still stand.
I don’t recall the city ever “announcing” that staff are traveling for professional development, yet I know that they do. I’d be bothered if her attendance was not acknowledged, but it was.
Agree!!
I agree - Sounds like Stephanie Mendoza is going on an approved work-related trip. I agree the timing could be better with early voting, but based on her response to your question she put all of her ducks in a row before leaving.
I think the focus should on what she accomplished as clerk in the last 4 years. My understanding is that she organized and digitized a massive backlog of historical records. While not as flashy as an overseas trip during election time, sure does help the city function.
It is not the job of an investigative journalist (me) to write a fluff piece about all the things the Clerk has done the last four years, during the election season. You can find plenty of that in political content put out by candidates, including Ms. Mendoza's campaign.
It is absolutely newsworthy that the Clerk is going out of the country during the election. It's less newsworthy at other times and I probably wouldn't write about it unless there was another variable to the story. I am not being critical of her ability to take work trips, she's welcome to do that, but the Clerk does have responsibilities during the election, which I have pointed out in the story.