You would think that NIC would appreciate an open dialog with the public on the hot topic of the Education Corridor. But no.

Great talk was made about last week’s NIC Education Corridor forum, co-sponsored by the GOP Pachyderms. Apparently there were feelings that NIC’s point of view was not equally presented on the panel. Because of that, the Pachyderms made overtures to NIC to let them have a say at tomorrow’s weekly Pachyderm meeting.

Phone calls were made by the Pachyderms to have an NIC trustee or President Bell at the meeting tomorrow to discuss the Education Corridor. Today, however, NIC PR guy Kent Propst phoned to say that no one from NIC, not a trustee, President Bell, or even Mr. Propst himself, would be at the Pachyderm meeting. They refused to come.

As I see it, that means NIC is definitely not interested in conversing with the public.

True: The Pachyderms are not known as a “polite applause” group. They ask questions, some of them tough. Yet apparently either NIC officials are afraid to address the tough questions or they just are not interested in any dialog at all with the public. The fact that tonight’s Education Corridor Presentation includes filtered questions and no back-and-forth dialog cements my thoughts on that issue.

The public is growing weary of the type of us-verses-them attitude that permeates our local government. The issue is transparency. The issue is accountability to the taxpayer. Are we getting that from NIC?