AAC F A M I L Y F R I E N D S » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » Identity theft Not what you might think
products to help protect your personal identity. Tis article is not about this type of identity theft, however, some of the technology and social media can be used to protect you against the identity theft that I will discuss. I am going to address another type of identity theft that I think is happening and what you might do to help defend yourself and your county. First of all, I want to clarify that my thoughts are in relation to county government and how I believe it operates. I think as a county elected official we have had our identities stolen or somewhat tarnished by what has and is happening in Washington, D.C. by both political parties. Te popularity or lack thereof of congress and the President and how the government is being conducted in our nation’s capital is having an effect on all forms of government. In fact, we are suffering a form of identi- ty theft as it relates to county government because of the overall lack of trust or confidence of government in general. Terein lies my claim. All forms of government have an identity crisis. More importantly the great job county officials provide on a daily basis doesn’t get the credit it deserves. It is being stolen from us right before our own eyes. I do realize that most of you run as political candidates and are identified as either a Democrat or Republican when you file for office. We do have some county officials who were elected as Inde- pendents. Also we have had a few elected as other party candidates and some as write-in candidates. I am aware many or maybe even most of you who read this may be comfortable with being identified as one of the aforementioned. But I don’t think you would like hav- ing such a low approval rating of the job you are doing just because government in general is being given such bad press. I, for one, think the bad press is justified most of the time when associated to the federal government. However, I don’t think just because you run as a Republican or a Democrat that the national party platform is how you view yourself or your personal beliefs and it doesn’t define the job you do as a county elected official. County government as a rule does not set policy. Yes maybe the county judge or even the sheriff to some extent does but most county officials are performing a public service by fulfilling requirements set out in state statute i.e.; a job description. Even the quorum court that can set policy on the county level is usually not guilty of setting policy that separates us with the real decisive issues. Tat is not what county government under Amendment 55 is about, it is about addressing real life prob- lems that happen on the local level on a daily basis. I can remember when the public in general thought of an elected official as someone of high integrity. Te elected official had their respect even if they were on the other side of the aisle so to speak. Tat has definitely changed now. Te job Congress is doing has become almost a nightly joke for late night television. Here is an
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n today’s environment of social media, credit cards and what seems to be limitless technology, protecting your personal identity is a must for you and your family. Tere are several things you can do and there are many companies who sell
Fowler’s
example. “A new poll shows only 3 percent strongly approve of the job Congress is doing, with a margin of error of 4 percent, so it’s possible that ‘less than no one’ thinks they’re doing a good job,” Jay Leno said. Tis list of jokes could go on and on but it serves as just one example of how our job per- formance can be perceived in our po- litical positions because of the political climate that we live and work in. I know we have had a few isolated cases where county elected officials have done things that were less than honorable and this adds to the opinion that government at any level is corrupt. I am not saying we are anywhere near the level that Congress is thought of, but I think we need to work on our identity. I believe we need to take a pro-active approach in each and every county to address what we do for the citizens of our county and the connections we have to city and state government, schools and yes, even on a limited basis our federal government. We need to use every opportunity to speak at civic functions, at schools or at any event where we are invited to participate. We should use this time to really explain to the public what our jobs consist of, and that it does require a substantial amount of training and that experience is key to being successful. And that we, as county officials, for the most part do not set policy but are there to carry out policy that has been set. In other words give them a short civics lesson. I think for most of our citizens they lack the information of what county government officials do in their job each day. Tis leads me to an- other suggestion. Whether we like it or not social media, Facebook, Twitter and the like are driving a lot of this negative publicity and I think each county should have a county web page linked to these social media sites to inform the public what is happening in the county and use it to explain the great job county officials are doing. Tis would take a cooperative measure of the officials and someone to keep this information up to date. It can be done because we do have a few elected officials who are doing this already and I know they have had success with changing the public’s opinion. In closing, having been an elected official for more than 20 years
Wes Fowler Government Relations Director
myself, my job didn’t affect just me. It had a major effect on my family as well, and for the most part, was a very good one. I can say; however, that some of those encounters were not pleasant and with the change in public opinion that scenario is happening more often. Te respect is just not there as in the past. I am not foolish enough to think we can stop all of the coffee shop talk so to speak but I do think we need to take that pro-active approach to saving our iden- tity as true public servants.
COUNTY LINES, WINTER 2014
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