I’m live-blogging from the Charlotte City Council’s retreat. I’m also Tweeting, follow @marynewsom.
I caught some possibly significant discussion for a time this afternoon, post-lunch and before the current budget presentation. Facilitator Mike Whitehead pointed out that most of the council members are “sort of introverted,” which means there’s a tendency for less communication. “You flaming extroverts know who you are,” he said, and laughter erupted from the table where Andy Dulin and James Mitchell are sitting. Those two are not what I’d peg as introverts.
Then Whitehead gave the formula he says is sometimes used in corporate America NC = MSU. That stands for “No communication? Then people make stuff up.” The lesson, he said, is to communicate better with each other, so people know what’s going on.
And, he said, you could communicate better with the media. (Colorful type font for emphasis is mine.) Answer questions and give data, he said, especially since a lot of the data is public record anyway.
But Mayor Anthony Foxx said he’d had experiences when C = MSU “and that’s a problem” He has sometimes talked to council members (“and you know who you are”) and then they tell reporters something else. Hmmm. So I think he just accused some council members of lying to the news media. If you’re a journalist, let me note, the only thing surprising about all that is for the mayor to call it out publicly.