{"id":2452437,"date":"2019-12-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=318004"},"modified":"2019-12-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T07:00:00","slug":"aspen-times-editorial-crown-mountain-park-board-proposal-for-pr-policy-is-bad-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-times-editorial-crown-mountain-park-board-proposal-for-pr-policy-is-bad-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen Times Editorial: Crown Mountain Park board proposal for PR policy is bad idea"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Crown Mountain Park and Recreation District\u2019s board of directors walked themselves back from voting to approve a \u201cPR Policy\u201d that is balanced on a slippery slope at their Dec. 11 meeting.<\/p>\n

After objections by The Aspen Times were raised about the proposed policy, the board voted to table the matter until a future meeting when its consulting attorney could be present.<\/p>\n

The public relations policy would designate the district\u2019s executive director, Becky Wagner, as the public information officer.<\/p>\n

As proposed, all media inquires would be funneled to the executive director for the \u201cofficial\u201d district opinion.<\/p>\n

The policy states that if the elected board members decide to speak to the media, they must provide a \u201cdisclaimer\u201d that they are providing personal opinions and not the official district position.<\/p>\n

In correspondence with The Aspen Times about the policy, Wagner said the board members \u201cdon\u2019t have to talk to the media. They are volunteers with other jobs. This (policy) gives the media the person with all the information to provide district info and official positions to the media. It does not at all say that individual board members can\u2019t talk to the media, just clarifies that in doing so they are speaking personally, not as the district official.\u201d<\/p>\n

We believe the policy would create a chilling effect on board members (who are elected, not volunteers) speaking their minds on issues, especially those with a minority view. It would potentially remove the people elected by voters from accountability.<\/p>\n

We foresee this policy being trotted out by nervous board members whenever the district tackles a controversial issue. The standard response could become, \u201cI\u2019m sorry, you will have to talk to executive director Becky Wagner about that issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a similar vein, the Aspen School District board adheres to policy governance, in which it permits only the board president to speak on behalf of the other four elected officials when outside of a meeting. We saw this come to light during the discussion of former Superintendent John Maloy\u2019s performance and job status in the fall of 2018.<\/p>\n

As the debate went on, the then-board president declined our requests for in-person interviews with her, Maloy and another board member, and she also suggested Maloy not speak to The Aspen Times.<\/p>\n

We feel voters were not given the full opinions of those who vote for and against re-upping Maloy\u2019s contract, which was ultimately not renewed.<\/p>\n

As we stated in an editorial in January about the school board, we understand why it doesn\u2019t want to politicize issues, but the public has a right to know how each individual board member falls on issues, other than what is said in board meetings.<\/p>\n

The people who voted for those school board members should have an expectation to know where they stand on particular issues.<\/p>\n

One voice is not who the Crown Mountain Park and Recreation District constituents elected to represent them.<\/p>\n

Voters need to know the justification of why board members vote the way they do. It\u2019s fundamental, critical oversight.<\/p>\n

It was clear from Wagner\u2019s comments at the Dec. 11 meeting that the PR policy was a reaction to recent media coverage that some Crown Mountain officials viewed as unfavorable. Wagner said at the board meeting the district should designate a point person to speak to reporters rather than \u201cwhoever they contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Board of directors member Jennifer Riffle was criticized by fellow board members for giving her opinion for an article.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need what happened in the articles,\u201d Wagner said at the Dec. 11 meeting. \u201cThose articles could have been avoided with proper information. I think a PR policy will help with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

When pressed by Riffle on how the PR policy would have affected the articles, Wagner said, \u201cIt just streamlines everything. It gives a group response rather than an individual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riffle said she wasn\u2019t comfortable with the policy because she said it appears to her to violate right to free speech.<\/p>\n

Board chairwoman Bonnie Scott countered she was completely in support of designating Wagner as the public information officer and \u201canswering for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board members don\u2019t need a PR person. This policy gives the appearance that the district is spending more time figuring out how to avoid public scrutiny than doing the work they were elected or hired to do.<\/p>\n

Attempting to censor board members who don\u2019t speak the company line is seems like an attempt to be less transparent. Transparency is what citizens should expect from their government.<\/p>\n

By all means, the district should appoint a main person of contact. But don\u2019t use the policy as a way to pump out a company line. Urge the board members to speak rather than clam up. It gives the appearance that they have something to hide, which causes more curiosity from the public.<\/p>\n

The voters deserve to hear all the board members\u2019 views. It is a given that what they say is their opinion; we don\u2019t need a policy\u2019s disclaimer to tell us that.<\/p>\n

When the issue arises again in January, we hope the board members will reject it.<\/p>\n

The Aspen Times editorial board consists of publisher Samantha Johnston, editor David Krause and reporters Rick Carroll, Scott Condon and Carolyn Sackariason.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Crown Mountain Park and Recreation District\u2019s board of directors walked themselves back from voting to approve a \u201cPR Policy\u201d that is balanced on a slippery slope at their Dec. 11 meeting. After objections by The Aspen Times were raised about the proposed policy, the board voted to table the matter until a future meeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 01:24:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}