Galveston mayor blames newspaper for killing disaster recovery panel

By Jennifer Peebles | Thursday, November 20th, 2008

Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas wants to shoot the messenger: She’s blaming the Galveston Daily News for killing off a committee she’d formed on hurricane recovery.

But it sounds more like the fault is her own and that of the other city leaders. The Daily News‘ story and editorial on the committee had pointed out a glaring conflict of interest with the person named to chair the committee.

Thomas said a story published Nov. 9 fatally wounded the committee and an editorial published Nov. 12 finished it off.

In his editorial, Editor Heber Taylor criticized Gerald Sullivan’s appointment to lead the committee, saying his sons’ interest in the East End Flats development made it unclear who Sullivan would be representing during future visits to Washington, D.C., to ask for federal funds …

But Thomas said she and (County Judge Jim) Yarbrough had the legal right and the authority as two leaders elected by the entire electorate of their respective jurisdictions to create the committee.

Just because an elected leader has the authority to do something doesn’t mean they should do it.

It’s the role of the press — and the duty of the press — in this country to hold government leaders accountable and point out their flaws. If the city didn’t want the hurricane recovery committee to be harshly criticized for such a no-brainer ethical problem, maybe it should have found someone else to head the committee.