Local government plays a key role in the lives of DeKalb County residents. This includes direct services such as providing police and fire protection, educating the next generation of our children, making decisions that affect land use, or offering programming and social services, among many others.
In my experience, the public has been generally supportive of local government. However, they also – and rightfully so – demand transparency with how public funds are used to provide these services.
Locally, units of government aim for transparency. Some achieve better results than others, but it would be almost impossible without local media.
There are no “regular business hours” when it comes to news cycles since public meetings, community events and incidents happen during the day, in the evening and at night.
In order to be good at their jobs, the people reporting the news have to prepare for a story by learning about the topic at hand, attending the event at whatever time it happens, and then quickly putting together a story against a deadline. All this work for a story that takes only a few minutes to read or a 15-second audio clip on the radio.
Over the past 23 years working in local government, I have worked with numerous members of the media including local, regional and national news outlets. Although each brings a little different approach, the media that I have been most impressed with has been those at the local level.
As DeKalb County has wrestled with some very complex issues over the past few years, the teams at the Daily Chronicle (led by Kelsey Rettke and Camden Lazenby), at WLBK 1360 AM/WSPY 107.1 FM (led by TD Ryan and Dan Lynch), and at WNIJ 89.5 FM/WNIU 90.5 FM (led by Maria Gardner Lara) have consistently attended meetings, asked questions, and fairly and accurately reported the news.
These individuals did not pick local media to get rich, and they definitely do not do it for the hours. It is clear to me that they do it because they care and take pride in informing the community.
In today’s world, with online news headlines coming to our phones and abundant social media platforms, community stories would not rise to the level of being newsworthy without local media.
DeKalb County is made up of 14 cities, towns and villages, each community proud of what makes it unique. The local media has helped build our communities through pictures, stories and broadcasts.
Local media is an essential partner for our communities and for transparent local government. We are fortunate to have a local newspaper and radio stations. While my career path will take me out of local government, I will still be part of the DeKalb County community and will definitely continue to read, support and listen to the stories and voices of our local media.
A big thank you to the Daily Chronicle, WLBK 1360 AM, WSPY 107.1 FM, WNIJ 89.5 FM, WNIU 90.5 FM and all the local media for continuing to bring the news to DeKalb County!
Editor’s note: Brian Gregory is the DeKalb County administrator. He recently announced his plans to exit his government role for a job in the private sector. His last day with the county will be in August.