— There are few decisions a city can make that are more important than the hiring of a chief executive, and there are few decisions that should be more scrutinized by the press and the public than how cities go about making that decision.

That’s why The Free Press insisted the names of the North Mankato city administrator finalist candidates be released as soon as the candidates were selected by the city committee appointed to do so. The city had planned to wait a few days to announce the candidates’ identities at a public meeting.

We believed that not releasing the names as soon as they were selected would be a violation of the Minnesota Data Practices Act.

First and foremost, we make such requests not for our own benefit but for the benefit of our reading public, which has a right to know how civic and political leaders are spending their tax money.

We had a special interest in having those names released. The Free Press filed suit against North Mankato in the 1990s when we believed the city administration was not following the law with regard to proper public disclosure of candidates for the same position.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled in the case of Mankato Free Press vs. the City of North Mankato that the names of finalists for the position of city administrator must be released once they are selected.

We relied on our Minnesota Newspaper Association Attorney Mark Anfinson for advice. He was The Free Press attorney in the original case.

Fortunately, when we formally requested the names be released via a letter faxed to North Mankato about noon Wednesday, Aug. 9, we received a fax with names of the finalists about 4:30 p.m. that day. (Unfortunately when Blue Earth County was faced with the same request earlier in 2011, it declined to cooperate in the manner North Mankato did.)

We did a story for the next day’s paper identifying the North Mankato finalists along with some background on their previous employment.

Some had run-ins with their city councils. One administrator’s job was eliminated. One ran for city council after losing the administrator job. One chided her city council for micromanaging. One was in and out of the same job.

Mayor Mark Dehen took issue with the newspaper’s first story during the public meeting to schedule interviews. He said The Free Press interjected itself into the hiring process, saying the media role should be to report as the hiring process unfolds. He argued the committee had more information on the candidates that would have offered a broader picture.

We respectfully take issue with they mayor’s suggestion of what our role should be. A newspaper has a role as a watchdog of government, not simply as stenographer. In that same vein, we could have provided that broader picture had the names been released earlier when the committee had made its selection. And we have provided that broader picture as we’ve covered the interviews.

   Taxpayers are not well served if we simply repeat what government officials say without question. Our role is to challenge government, to make sure they’re obeying the law, to challenge decisions if we think they are misguided, to question their statements, and most importantly to give the public the information it needs to hold its representatives accountable.

It’s a role the fourth estate has taken on since the American Revolution. Founding fathers saw a free press as a necessary and indeed critical institution to keep even a democratic government in check.

Thomas Jefferson was known for the quote that if he had to chose between a “government without newspapers or newspapers without a government” he would “not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Dehen also suggested the first story was too negative. It’s not really our primary concern whether people will view stories as positive or negative. Our job is to supply people with facts we think are relevant.

Several people thought we did the right thing by doing a story on the background of the candidates. To them, the stories were a “positive” because they found out something they didn’t know.

We generally respect the work many dedicated public servants do. We respect their willingness to work with the press and provide us with information needed for stories that serve the public good.

But public officials must be ready and willing to accept public scrutiny. The press plays an important role in that.



Joe Spear is editor of The Free Press. Contact him at 344-6382 or jspear@mankatofreepress.com.