This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
by Marcia Martin
Every time I write an opinion piece, I'm supposed to say that even though I'm a member of the Longmont City Council, the things I write don't represent the position of the City of Longmont, or the Council, or anyone at all but me, myself. There: I said it, and it's true. I'm speaking only for myself. I do my very best to always tell the truth. Many people feel that's not my best trait, but I take pride in it nonetheless.
Lately, here in Longmont, there's been a veritable epidemic of what I'll call weaponized falsehoods. Sometimes they're outright lies: that's when the teller knows the falsehood is false when they say it. Other times the perpetrator of the falsehood believes it when they say it, even though it isn't true. I don't know which is worse, and I don't always know when I hear a falsehood whether the teller is lying, or whether they believe themselves. It's not my place to try to tell the difference, either. So I'm not, as a rule, going to go around calling my colleagues liars. But I am going to expose as many falsehoods as I can. Because you, the people of this fine city of Longmont, Colorado, deserve the truth from your elected officials.
You deserve diligence from your elected officials, too. Diligence means fact-checking yourself before you open your mouth - or at least after, and then acknowledging your mistake. But lots of people, and too many members of the Longmont City Council, make statements just because the statement supports their opinion or position. It doesn't matter whether those statements are lies or errors. They undermine the public trust. They mislead the public as to where their own interest lies.
This week at City Council there was a great example of what I'm talking about. We were approving the minutes of the last regular session. At that meeting, which took place on February 11, Council Member Joan Peck stated that the CORA request made last year by Ms. Regina Cheney was "for everything that is on the City server." The minutes of the meeting reflected Peck's statement. But the statement was false. Ms. Cheney's request was for all Peck's emails relating to the matter under dispute, regardless of where they were stored or from which email account they originated.
While discussing the minutes, Council Member Waters attempted to correct the public record by pointing out the falsehood, and wanted the record to show that Cheney's CORA request was not limited to items on the City Server. However, he was not permitted to do so, because the minutes correctly recorded the false statement uttered by Ms. Peck. So the untruth was perpetuated, and now Peck's misstatement is enshrined in the public record.
Fortunately, the video recordings of Council meetings still exist, and they reflect the truth: the correct wording of Cheney's request, and the counterfactual statement made by Council Member Peck, and the correct restatement by Dr. Waters... even though that correction was not incorporated into the minutes of the meeting of February 11. But what a tangle! And a future researcher who chooses to refer to the minutes rather than the video will still be sadly mislead.
There's no telling whether Council Member Peck was lying, or whether she believed her own counter-factual assertion. She does appear to have trouble with the idea that she gave up a certain amount of personal privacy when she took her oath of office. But the point is not whether she's a liar or not. She could easily have fact-checked her own statement, and chose not to. The point is that she should have, and that part of our duty as elected officials should be taking care to tell the truth to the people of Longmont always.
Here's the way I'm going to do my part to hold this City Council to account. I'm going to fact-check us. Every time I hear a Member make an unsubstantiated or counter-factual statement, I'm going to fact check it. Well, maybe not every time. I'll fact check as much as I can. We have to allow that I may not pick up every falsehood, and also that I may just run out of time for finding facts. But I'll do my best.
Every time I am able to expose an untruth told by a member of Council, I'll put the original statement, and its author, and the facts and citations proving them wrong all in an email and send it to my City of Longmont mailbox. And in that email I'll include the hashtag #geppettosworkshop. Now all any member of the public who wants access to my fact-checking has to do is walk into the Longmont city clerk's office and request a search for that hashtag. Easy peasy. It will be free, because it's such an easy search. It won't take long at all, and I'm assured that there will be no need to even fill out a formal CORA request. Just ask.
Astute readers may have noted by now that one Member of Council is not subject to scrutiny under this plan. That would be me. And while I can promise you that I will correct myself publicly if I discover that I've made an erroneous statement on the record, that's pretty weak soup. After all, I might never catch my own error, or I could just be lying to you right now. (OK, but I'm not.) So here's Part 2: Geppetto's Challenge.
If you, Dear Reader, catch Council Member Martin uttering a falsehood, or even presenting an unsubstantiated opinion as fact, send an email to me, at [email protected]. Put in my original statement, and the facts and citations that refute me. Include the hashtag #geppettosworkshop. And I promise you a public retraction. I'll make it on this opinion page, or, if it's important enough, during Council Comments on a Tuesday night. And should I fail to own up, you've still exposed my error, because all requests for #geppettosworkshop debunkings will include your debunking of me. Of course, if your research doesn't check out, I will debunk you right back. But there's nothing I can do to erase your email from the open record.
Also, I'll thank you for it. We need to raise the quality of public discourse. Democracy is crumbling around us: this I believe. We need to commit to placing truth above ideology, expediency, or political success. We need to restore trust to government. Who's with me?
