E-mail Story
Print Friendly
Send E-mail
Reprint story
Speakup and View Comments
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
You Can Join Our Watchdog Team
By Thomas J. Cole
Journal Staff Writer
In this country, you're supposed to get ahead if you play by the rules.
You know the drill: Get an education, work hard, pay your bills, tend to the family, save for retirement and then head down the trail knowing your life was well lived.
Watchdog Blog
Here are today's realities: Millions are out of work, and 401(k) and individual retirement accounts have lost $2 trillion in value.
It's a frustrating time, and many see government as part of the problem, working for corporate executives and politicians but not ordinary folks.
For some readers, the front page of the Journal on Jan. 14 was a sign of the times.
A story in the center of the page reported 2,500 people showed up at a job fair and spent hours in line to compete for about 100 jobs.
Other stories on the page: a state lawmaker double dipping on expense money, a University of New Mexico vice president getting a 16 percent raise to $428,000 and a school superintendent accused of abusing her position.
"Keep up the pressure on everyone to be honest — the state psyche may actually change to where we demand that our government officials and employees be honest and intelligent," wrote Chris Timm of Albuquerque.
And that's kind of the point of this column: However frustrating, this is no time to give up, to disconnect from government. Perhaps now more than ever, you need to keep an eye on government and speak your piece.
To help you in that regard, I and the other members of the investigative team of the Journal have developed a new resource page called Watchdog at www.ABQjournal.com.
After all, we can't be in all places, check the background of every public official or dive into every policy debate that may be of interest to you.
The Watchdog page includes links to Web sites the investigative team uses every day.
You can, for example, check campaign contributions to your state lawmaker, find out how much your electric co-op pays its board members, see who is lobbying for whom in Santa Fe, review the audit of your local schools, check for DWI cases and review executive pay for publicly held companies.
There also are links to sites where you can learn your rights and how to use them under the federal Freedom of Information Act and the state's laws requiring government bodies to meet in public and allow public inspection of their records.
The site does have links to some fun stuff. At one site, you can track — in real time or historically — use of the state's $5.5 million Cessna jet (tail no. N47NM).
The Watchdog page has links to recent stories by the investigative team and a means to e-mail us.
We also plan to build a library of databases. We've started with one: the database with names, salaries and titles of exempt state government employees. That database was first published in December.
Send the investigative team an e-mail if you use the resources on the Watchdog page and discover something that you believe we need to know. Also forward any suggestions for additional resource links.
A Santa Fe man who wrote me last week is among the frustrated. Sick of corruption but not ready to throw in the towel, he said.
"It is tempting for me to leave this state that I've called home for 44 years, but for now I will stay and do what I can," he wrote.
Folks, I don't want to get preachy here, but we need more with that attitude. At no time during this country's history has more information about government been so readily and easily available. Right at your fingertips.
It's easy to be a watchdog. So, get involved.
UpFront is a daily front-page opinion column. Thom Cole can be reached in Santa Fe at (505) 992-6280 or at tcole@abqjournal.com
| We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. |
|
|
