OUR VIEW: You deserve to know how your tax dollars are spent

Something the Daily American Republic, and a lot of journalists, have started realizing is that we need to do a better job of explaining what happens in our newsrooms.

The old adage of “report the news, don’t be the news,” served our predecessors well in the days before social media and instantaneous conversations about the content we cover. But today, we understand that you have questions. Those questions generate conversations we want and need to be a part of.

So, we’re doing that today. We plan to do this occasionally in the future, covering topics we’ve reported on, and we’ve received questions about.

Recently, we reported on the change of hands of the Butler County coroner’s office following a hotly contested race. Jim Akers took over from Andy Moore, who originally beat Akers for the seat four years ago.

Akers made a statement on the day he was sworn in, which we reported: “There have been some procedural things, like child death review panels, that have not been done the last four years, and I’m going to get that fixed. We’re going to get everything back up and running as Butler County should be,” he said.

Longtime staff member Paul Davis covered the swearing in ceremony and took comments from new office holders, as well as some returning office holders.

Davis, along with most of our newsroom, has worked with Akers and Moore.

We decided to dive into what Akers meant by that in a separate story. We needed more time to talk through what he was concerned about, and to reach out to Moore for a response. As veteran reporter Michelle Friedrich started reaching out to those involved, we realized it couldn’t all be tackled in one article. The Jan. 16 piece focused on the concerns of family members, specifically on delays in getting death notifications and death certificates.

We don’t take lightly the decision to report on difficult matters in the newspaper, no matter who that person is.

We understand the reach and impact those claims will have.

In this case, it directly impacted the final disposition of someone’s loved one’s remains and how tax dollars were spent.

It was information that needed to be reported, even though it is uncomfortable for many of the parties involved.

Ultimately, Moore chose not to respond to our attempts to reach him. We’re sorry for that, because we would like to have heard his side of the situation.

We will always try to reach out to all parties involved in a situation like this. That is a commitment any trusted news source should make.

Ultimately, you paid for the four years that Andy Moore was in office and you will pay for the four years that Jim Akers is in office.

You may also be a family member one day waiting for that terrible call, or trying to navigate the red tape that comes after.

You deserve to know the person you elected is doing their job right, or if there are issues to be addressed.

You, and the families who reached out to us, deserve to have these issues brought to light.

Thank you for reading the Daily American Republic and trusting us as your community news source.