On March 13th, questions concerning the 2011 Budget Request for the Office of Economic Development were submited to Director Vernon Thompson.
It has been nearly a month, and answers from the Office of Economic Development have not been forthcoming.
But, we did get what seems to me to be a somewhat condensending email.
I have posted it below, unedited as it was received.
From: Vernon Thompson <thompsonvj@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Mar 13, 2010 at 9:47 PM
Subject: Re: Questions on the Office of Economic Development’s FY2011 Budget Request
Cc: Al Wein <awein@ccgov.org>, Robert Hodge <robert@rjhmgt.com>
Mt Patterson – Feel free to call my office for an appointment. I have seen your web sight and the charts you choose todisplay as a means to explain economic growth in Cecil County. It is clear you need an in-depth explaination and guidance. I look forward to your visit.Vernon J Thompson
Mr. Thompson, I personally am confident in Cecil County resident’s ability to read and comprehend your responses to the questions below if you would simply send us an email with a response. While I can understand the benefit of face-to-face communication, the questions were not asked to satisfy personal curiousity, but rather as a service to Cecil County taxpayers that fund your department’s budget.
If you feel some of the information we’ve made available is mistaken or innacurate, I’d be glad to publish your comments and corrections on this web site for our reader’s education. We continue to expect to have further details as requested from you as a public servant.
Ted,
He makes a valid point, as you have a strong track record of picking and choosing which pieces of the puzzle to show the general audience.
I believe the specific reference is to an article you wrote on the young republicans site entitled “we need job.” You choose to show a chart that shows Cecil County with a smaller percentage of actual jobs(volume) than the surrounding counties, where as you fail to provide the chart that shows that not only is Cecil County’s job growth secondly only to Harford County by one tenth of one percent, but that Cecil County’s job growth percentage (3.2%) is more than double than the population growth (1.6%) over the same stretch of time.
You either posted this information to be intentionally misleading, or have no concept of how to actually extrapolate data from a viable source. If i were Mr. Thompson, I would share his hesitation on allowing you to create your own facts through misguided spin.
Hi Mr. Brass,
Thank you for your comment. It is common knowledge that Cecil County does and will have in the future a very high rate of growth as compared to other counties in the state. This doesn’t change the fact that comparatively speaking Cecil County currently maintains a very small share of jobs in the region. Additionally, our unemployment rate and status as a workforce exporter make me continue to believe that “we need jobs” in this county.
We are reporting facts as we get them. I would refer you to the post about Pam Howard, a Democrat, providing us answers to questions about her departmental budget. We didn’t slant anything that she gave us–just printed it verbatim–and thanked her very much for providing information to the public.
After repeated requests for information, Mr. Thompson has been unwilling or unable to produce answers to our questions on his department’s spending. We are not condemning his department; we are simply asking valid questions to be answered. Every citizen in Cecil County has the right to know where public money is being spent regardless of what department it is.
Mr. Thompson’s continued unwillingness to give answers to citizen questions places a dark cloud over the transparency of county government. Almost every single other department head or county official has been cooperative when asked questions, save Vernon Thompson. What’s the big secret?
Thanks,
Ted Patterson
Corey, you miss the point of my post all together. We post the information for others to decide. Whether we ad our own perspective to the data doesn’t prevent anyone else from judging for themselves on the facts.
Why won’t he provide us with the answers to the questions presented? Elected or not elected, the voter’s will have their say eventually…If Mr. Thompson can’t handle the public scrutiny, then perhaps he should consider a change in careers.