Sarah Nigbor

Being a journalist, I spend a lot of time covering public government meetings. I can’t tell you how many thousands of hours of my life have been spent watching elected local officials debate everything from school district referenda to new jails, from annual budget hearings to figuring out what to do when Covid hit. The common theme in these meetings is that nothing is hasty, nothing appears out of the blue, and nothing happens without several meetings being held, many of which are open to the public. The wheels of government are not known for being speedy.

I will admit there are many times I want to stand up and scream during public comment periods when false statements are made, because all they do is perpetuate misinformation. I just wish people would actually research the topic they are talking about before standing on a soapbox to spread their opinion to the entire land. OPINION DOES NOT EQUAL FACT. I also feel this way whenever reading threads on our community Facebook pages, because there are so many inaccuracies, assumptions and outright lies on them. And I’m not just being a skeptical journalist. It’s quite astounding how quickly things spread.

In today’s society, we are especially busy. If you have kids in sports, work full-time, volunteer and try to have any kind of life in the few minutes of free time you possess, that doesn’t leave a lot of time to attend local government meetings. Believe me, I know. I consider myself fortunate that doing so is part of my job, even though many that I cover don’t affect me because I don’t live in every municipality. However, if we want to be good citizens, it’s our duty to be informed. If you take the time to understand how school boards, county boards, town boards and/or city councils/village boards work, you will know what the big issues are and how you’d like local officials representing you to vote on them. Better yet, you’ll know when people on Facebook are just plain wrong.

Several citizens at the Jan. 23 Pierce County Board meeting accused the county of trying to rush the proposed judicial facility, not giving county board supervisors or the public enough time to read through the materials found in the board packet. This is simply not true. I must respectfully disagree with those who say this was all done in secret without advanced notice to the public.

The debate on whether or not to build a new judicial facility, remodel the existing courthouse or add onto it has been going on for YEARS. There have been multiple public meetings on the topic, in various county committees, all of which were posted publicly. This topic has been discussed so much in the Finance & Personnel, Law Enforcement and Ad Hoc Judicial Facility committees that I am sick of it (no offense). I could recite many of the facts and figures in my sleep. In fact, I bet I do. Who wants to dream about courthouse security and the issuance of bonds?

My point is, I know not everyone’s schedule allows them to attend all these meetings. But if you are going to speak out about a topic, please make sure you know what you are talking about. Because if you’re wrong, you’re doing more harm than good. I’m sure that is not most people’s intention.

If you can’t attend a meeting on a topic that interests you, reach out to your representatives to ask questions. Read meeting minutes. Look at upcoming agendas. And shameless plug right here: read your local newspaper. Because it’s our job to cover these things whether we agree with them or not. And I take pride on covering everything as accurately as I can. This project has been in our pages several times over the past year. It didn’t just come out of left field.

I encourage Pierce County citizens to go to co.pierce.wi.us and find the “Judicial Facility” tab on the website. There’s a wealth of information on the proposed judicial facility at the click of your mouse. The Journal has also written many articles on the topic, which you can find at piercecountyjournal.news