Town needs to fix its ‘perceived message’

Looking back on my early days in the Air Force, I’m reminded of a common message my former boss often mentioned to myself and others in the office. Whenever we dealt with something affecting our military commanders and others on the base, he reminded us that, “the message perceived is the message.”

Simply put, we needed to keep a close eye on the stories we published in our weekly base newspaper in addition to similar messages we provided to various news reporters as well as community leaders in the local area. We always took a closer look at everything to ensure we didn’t accidentally write something that others might misinterpret or look at from a perspective we never intended.

Our goal was simple: We needed to ensure everyone clearly understood what we meant to say and why we felt it was necessary to say it.

After all, if we said something others in the local area felt was condescending or inappropriate, it’s likely we would’ve caused a public relations nightmare that would require our military leaders to issue a formal apology published in the city’s newspaper and aired on the nightly news. In addition, it would likely take months, possibly years, to repair that damage.

It seems this same message is something some elected officials in our community might need to remember whenever they speak at a scheduled public meeting in addition to the comments they might post or share on social media and other venues. Having dealt with the repercussions these officials faced in recent months, it seems a few of them don’t understand how their comments are coming back to figuratively bite them in the neck.

The best examples I have to offer involve how the comments made by members of the city council prompted the city’s police chief and our community’s military liaison officer to resign from their years of service here. In both cases, those council members made baseless accusations and other remarks against both men that convinced them that it wasn’t worth staying here.

Nowhere did I ever hear these councilmembers ever apologize for their actions. In addition, I didn’t see any instance in which they were held accountable for possibly damaging this city’s reputation with regards to how it treats those who are looking at the possibility of planning to live here.

Having taken time to meet with Police Chief Jon Thompson and retired Chief Master Sgt. Marty Anderson, I gained an in-depth look at how much time and effort they personally invested to benefit not just our town but also Mountain Home Air Force Base.

In case you forgot, the police chief spent 36 years of his life in the law enforcement profession. His years of experience led him to work to provide the city police department some needed help.

This included the effort he led to guide the department through the process needed for it to earn state-wide accreditation through the Idaho Chiefs of Police Association. It was something that, from his perspective, the department never pursued before.

Despite this, it took a mere six months for that investment to pay off as the state announced the city police department achieved this title. The Mountain Home Police Department remains one of 23 police departments in Idaho that share that designation out of the 103 departments across the state.

Meanwhile, Anderson devoted countless hours of his time to help preserve what he referred to as the long-term viability of Mountain Home Air Force Base, which provides more than $900 million in yearly economic impact to this community in addition to Elmore County. Simply put, this city’s future weighs heavily on keeping this installation fully operational.

The first goal involved ongoing plans to improve the installation’s access to surface water. With local water levels continuing to decline, that project represented a major step to ensuring those stationed here never lose that critical resource.

Simply put, no water, no more Air Force base here.

While it took more than 11 years for everything to come to fruition, Anderson’s work paved the way to get that water pipeline from the Snake River to the base earning a major leap forward. In addition, the grants he helped secure ensured the base not only has places to store all of this water but also has a facility needed to treat all of this water to ensure it remains safe for those working and living on the base to use.

The one thing Anderson also addressed was the fact we have way too many airmen and their families who don’t live anywhere near Mountain Home. I know of at least one airman who needs to drive to and from Meridian every day, which is absolutely unacceptable from my perspective.

That airman is one of at least 850 military families stationed here that have to make a similar trek here from the Treasure Valley. That lack of available housing in the local area represents a $5 million economic loss to our town.

It’s something this community needs to permanently fix.

At the same time, I think the city’s elected officials need to be held accountable for their inability to carry out their assigned duties. From my perspective, all I see is these council members spending way too much time talking versus simply solving the problems this community continues to deal with.

Case in point: Why didn’t the city council ever fix the ongoing problem between the city and county regarding the dispatch agreement that ran into problems a few months back? Simply put, why didn’t someone at city hall write that check like they had done for so many years and take it over to the county courthouse?

It’s incidents like this that lead people in this town to perceive a message that the city council doesn’t care about those they swore an oath to support. It’s not a message that will go away unless the council takes time to fix that perspective.

Consider the following: What would’ve happened if the city council faced the possibility of having the Desert Canyon Golf Course permanently shut down because they missed a similar type of payment to the county? I’d almost guarantee the city council would’ve immediately started the meeting, approved the necessary measure to make that payment within 30 seconds and moved on.

After all, what would’ve happened to those city council members if they continued to talk about this issue for several months versus solving the problem?

Yeah, that’s what I thought as well.

It would’ve involved people going to the county courthouse, filing a petition and holding an emergency recall election. Within minutes after the polls opened, I’m betting thousands of voters would pack into the voting booths and unanimously vote to immediately kick those people off the city council.

As a result, the city council’s perceived message would’ve gotten fixed once and for all.

– Brian S. Orban