Jim Ireton and Staff Need to Watch Their Step

Salisbury mayor Jim Ireton needs to do two things soon:

• Get someone to teach him how to handle the press
• Have a long sit down with his city attorney and have the confidentiality of personnel matters explained to him.

After two days of bad reporting by the Daily Times, the one person who looks the worst in this matter is Ireton.  Starting with Friday’s claim:

… Mayor Jim Ireton said earlier Thursday the document does not exist.

"I’m not getting in the middle of Terry Cohen, Debbie Campbell and The Daily Times," Ireton said. "I don’t have anything to do with it."

Jim, never tell a reporter that “nothing exists”.  Don’t even deny the existence of little green men from Mars.  Try something like, “To the best of my knowledge…”.

 

To add insult to injury, Ireton had to embellish for Saturday’s piece:

"I would rather your paper compare me to being a liar than violate employee confidentiality," he said. "It is employee-related and is privileged and confidential because it’s a personnel matter."

Good lord man, were you high while talking to the press?  For future reference, remember two words – NO COMMENT!

Jim Ireton is a friend.  To the best of my knowledge I’ve never criticized him publicly.  I also understand that dealing with the media is an art; it is also a skill which will take some time to develop.  Everybody has to learn.

However, there are some things that simply cannot be allowed.  One of them is for the mayor, or his staff commenting on a personnel issue.  It opens the city up to needless litigation, potentially costing the taxpayers money, and most important – IT’S WRONG!

Let’s try a few of these next time Jim:

No Comment.

The city of Salisbury does not comment on personnel matters.

If you really feel like spreading you wings and saying more than you should:

Gee Laura, (or insert other reporter’s name here), what you’re describing sounds like a personnel matter to me.  You know that we’re just not allowed to discuss those things.  Sorry.

It’s really not that hard.  Now what you have is a newspaper article floating around with “liar” on the same line as Ireton’s name.  You have a group of functional illiterates claiming that Ireton is a liar and you have more critical readers simply shaking their heads.  Ireton needs to remember that he’s no longer dealing with a crew of eight year olds (admittedly, most of critics are no smarter).

Ireton’s inexperience can allow us to forgive his foible.  However, that does not explain why city administrator John Pick is commenting to the press on this matter:

"There were several documents that went to the mayor." But he would not elaborate on the nature of the documents, citing personnel confidentiality.

Pick supposedly has over 30 years experience at this.  What is his excuse?  There is no reason to comment – period.

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