City's Top Bureaucrat Talks About His European Trip

Two months after the trip, a five-minute talk is given to council

At this past Monday night’s City Council meeting, the City’s Top Bureaucrat took center stage in a relatively quiet meeting, speaking for roughly five minutes about his trade trip to Europe that took place nearly two months ago.

What was said, by the City’s Top Bureaucrat, certainly wasn’t newsworthy, nor was it really that interesting. Mostly due to the fact that this publication covered the trip in-depth as we sat down with Mr. Joseph Graves of the Troy Development Council to talk about the trip last month. You can read that post here:

Insightful readers of this publication might be asking, “Why would anyone report back on a trip that happened two months ago? Why not talk about the trip when you first got back?”

Well, let’s answer the first question.

Last Saturday, the At-Large Council Members fielded questions from roughly two dozen residents at the Troy Senior Citizen’s Center for nearly two hours. One of the questions came from a resident who knew this European Trip took place, but was wondering why the City’s Top Bureaucrat never bothered to tell council about the trip, when the outcomes of the trip were reported to the Troy Rotary Club.

Well, obviously the council members in attendance heard this concern and requested some type of report from the city administration on the trip. What was offered by the City’s Top Bureaucrat was a five-minute soliloquy on the week-long oversees trip, sans slides or other visual aids.

But, perhaps it’s the second question that is more interesting.

Why didn’t the City Administration share more details about the trip before Monday night to Council?

Well, it’s not this publication’s place to assign motives to anyone. But, in the world of communication and community building, one axiom is true: sharing is caring. The City’s 2024 budget showed that $20,000 was expected to be spent for the City’s Top Bureaucrat’s Travel and Training this year; this expenses for this trip were in that budget category.

And the residents of this town and our council shouldn’t have to make an explicit ask for a report on a week-long overseas trip. If the trip was as successful as those who participated said it was, the city could have gone to the effort of issuing press statements, social media posts and other communications demonstrating to not only the business community, but the taxpaying citizens, the deliverables from this trip.

It doesn’t take a ton of effort to talk about the groups that showed interest in the community, the countries that were visited and discussions held with overseas businesses that have operations here in our hometown. I am certain all of this could have been done without jeopardizing future developments or divulging any trade secrets.

One of the underlying threads of Saturday’s meeting with the At-Large Council Members is that there is a lack of trust between the decisions at City Hall and the residents that are paying taxes in our community. Failing to communicate about events that could be seen as a real success (like a trade mission to Europe) doesn’t help with that trust deficit; it makes it worse.

Our leaders, both elected and appointed, can help rebuild this trust by communicating what they know in a timely and clear fashion to a public that is becoming more and more aware of things that aren’t being said.

Remember, sharing is caring. This town could use a little more of both from its leaders.

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