Public Servant Announcement
Re: "A Matter of Public Record" by Fawn Germer (Feb. 20-26)
As a public employee, I agree wholeheartedly with the right of the public to have access to public records. Files, documents relating to public business should be and are open to the public for your review. What I don't understand is why the public feels that they have a right to my home address and home number. I work 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., sometimes later if the need is there. When I leave work, I am gone for the day and try to leave work behind me. Why should a member of the public have the right to go to the personnel office of my employer and request to see my personnel file in an effort to get my home number? The public wants to look at my job evaluations? Great, review all you want. The public wants to see my past job experiences? Great, review all you want. The public wants to see my home number so that I can get calls at 3 a.m., asking why I made a specific recommendation on a case, I find that objectionable and feel very strongly that this kind of information should not be public record.
And, by the way, when you ask for a public records request, you are now in the public realm. From that day forward, your name and number will also be in the document you requested. Make sure that you are asking for the information for a legit reason, not for harassment.
David Greene
Via e-mail
Lacking in Leadership
Re: "Cut the Puppet Strings" by Fawn Germer (Feb. 13-19)
Fawn Germer is dead on about Judith Genshaft. The empress is wearing no clothes. It's about time somebody held her accountable for her cowardly behavior, and Ms. Germer has held her cold feet to the fire. I wonder how much more of Genshaft's piss poor leadership we will have to suffer.
Bob Lerner
Via e-mail
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I'm sick of all this bullshit at USF. Al-Arian needs to go and Genshaft needs to catch a ride with him. Kudos to you for telling it like it is.
Frank Richardson
Brandon
Leadership Qualities
Re: "Not Child's Pay" by Francis X. Gilpin (Feb. 6-12)
Luanne Panacek does the work of five people and always has in the more than 20 years that I've known her. If you paid separate individuals to do her job, at a minimal $35,000 apiece, this would cost taxpayers $175,000 annually. Perhaps this comparison best illustrates what a bargain Hillsborough County gets with Ms. Panacek, even with her current well-deserved raise.
There is no agency or organization that is free of critics who would run things differently if given an opportunity. As such, your verbal and pictorial caricatures of Ms. Panacek serve no purpose other than to demean her personally and professionally. She has a vision for quality services for children, and fortunately for Hillsborough residents, she is not afraid to pursue it.
Perhaps your time would be better spent pursuing corruption and mismanagement where it may actually exist. The Children's Board of Hillsborough County is in better shape than it has been in a very long time, and I am grateful for the opportunities this agency creates for area residents and professionals to move their values, services and practices into the 21st century.
Suzanne Hanna Shahan
Via e-mail
