Dear Reader,
Ron Fonger has been covering the functions of government for MLive for 27 years; Ryan Stanton has done the same for 18 years.
That often means sorting through a whole lot of dysfunction.
Like a city council member being escorted out of meetings at least 10 times – twice in handcuffs. Or protestors forcing an entire council to flee to a side room, and then plopping into the council members’ chairs and saying they’d hold their own meeting. Or all too frequently, having to report on meetings that stretch to 3 a.m. or later.
“We’ve got to weigh a lot when we sit through those long meetings,” said Stanton, who covers Ann Arbor city government and politics. “We certainly don’t try to play (conflict) up … but we hold a mirror where it’s due. What did city council vote on, and what does this mean for residents?”
MLive has reporters covering the day-to-day workings of governments in eight communities around the state. All cities have their own problems, their own social and political climates, and their own personalities and factions.
Our goal is to cut through bureaucracy and squabbles to get at policy work and governance that affects day-to-day life in our cities, counties and school districts. More often than not, the job entails making dry subjects interesting. Sometimes, though, our reporters must cut through turmoil and drama to keep the focus on the topic at hand.
“If I wrote about every argument or insult that gets passed back and forth between the city council, we'd never end up covering the city's business,” said Fonger, who reports on government in Flint, where almost every meeting is riddled with personal confrontations between council members.
“Every time someone's removed from a meeting, I don't necessarily write a story about it. I draw the line when it becomes so clear that this is impeding getting the city's business done.”
A recent example of that is Fonger’s story last week on Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley issuing an anti-bullying executive order in response to what he said is intimidation of workers at City Hall by city council members.
And earlier this year, relations between city council members in Ann Arbor, as well as between them and city staff members, were persistently so strained that Stanton was moved to write a long, informative piece examining the obstacles to cooperative governing.
The headline said it all: “Ann Arbor is one of Michigan’s great cities, so why is its government such a mess?”
“The mayor and all 10 council members are Democrats, but there's two factional divisions … it goes back and forth from election to election and the two sides really go at each other,” Stanton said. “You can tell at these meetings they personally don't like each other. They take potshots at each other.”
Flint’s council is similarly divided – some of it personal and some of it racial, as five elected leaders are Black, four are white. Earlier this month, a white council member apologized for making a comment a Black council member found offensive.
Sometimes the drama is a big sideshow. But when the councils decide they need to go to retreats or hire facilitators to show them how to get along, those stories have to be written. As well as: Does it make a difference?
“The Flint City Council has gone back to ‘charm school’ a couple of times,” Fonger said. “They've had outside sessions with experts in parliamentary procedure and so forth, and what's acceptable and what's not. Then a meeting comes around and everybody goes back to those worst instincts – it just becomes a Battle Royale again.”
Despite varying levels of drama and dysfunction, all our communities do operate. In fact, when humans are involved in anything some level of disagreement should be expected. In the end, the government we get is the government we elect.
“Disagreement and dissent does add to a healthy democracy. Obviously, we don't want a council that doesn't debate and just rubber stamps everything,” Stanton said.
“It all comes down to just personalities clashing, at the end of the day. If they can't work that out among themselves, it’s up to voters to decide who's going to represent them and which personalities they want.”
🎧 On this week's episode of our Behind the Headlines podcast, John Hiner and Eric Hultgren talk with Ryan Stanton and Ron Fonger about covering local politics and the issues and struggles that come with that. Listen here on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
###
John Hiner is the vice president of content for MLive Media Group. If you have questions you’d like him to answer, or topics to explore, share your thoughts at editor@mlive.com.
