Woodside is one rough town.
In the rough-and-tumble frontier of cyberspace, Woodside’s patina of rural tranquility has given way to a seething hotbed of crankiness. Citizens of Woodside, or COW, is a year-old anonymous blog/community bulletin board rife with bovine-inspired puns.
Seriously, there’s more wince-inducing wordplay than there are flies on a … never mind.
Beyond the cheeky cattle decorating the site, there’s a fair amount of manure being spread around. One of the latest postings lists the results of a blistering survey on Woodside officials and town staff.
On the bright side, most of the respondents like tree removal permits, Councilman Pete Sinclair, Town Clerk Janet Koelsch and Deputy Town Clerk Tara Sanders. Everyone and everything else, not so much.
About 170 people opined on the performance of town staff and council members, out of nearly 2,000 survey responses.
It’s no surprise that people aren’t too thrilled by the arduous process of getting building permits and variances in Woodside. The town is in the midst of what could be a significant change in the handling of applications and customer service, but only time will tell whether these efforts will reduce the great backlog of ire that residents have stored up.
It’s my job to be impartial, and I find I can usually empathize with those on both sides of the issue. I myself have been less than thrilled with public officials from time to time.
Occasionally, while languishing at unconscionably lengthy council meetings, I must distract myself with the plight of the council members themselves. Contemplating the long hours, the nonexistent pay, and the exposure to verbal abuse is good antidote for journalistic self-pity.
But it’s one thing to have to sit there and listen to a tirade from a hot-under-the-collar constituent who has come to a meeting, but it’s quite another to have to take anonymous potshots from a bunch of online bull-slingers.
Every democracy needs its gadflies, those die-hard citizens who buzz around council chambers, write irate letters to the editor and engage in a little finger-wagging just to remind those in charge that they are being watched.
I’ve always admired those folks, who, like the council or commission members themselves, aren’t being paid to sit through those meetings.
Maybe they’ve got an agenda to pursue, and maybe they have an enviable amount of free time on their hands, but they are brave and ornery enough to stand up and speak truth to power despite the consequences.
Reporters tend to have a more uneasy relationship with bloggers, the Internet-era gadflies, for several reasons. While it’s cheering when anyone takes the time to pay attention to local politics, bloggers aren’t bound by the same professional ethics of fairness, accountability and accuracy as journalists.
The survey posted at CitizensofWoodside.com raises a lot of questions, but thanks to the anonymous nature of the site, I can’t pick up the phone and ask anyone about them. The site would gain a lot of credibility if those behind it were willing to step up and identify themselves.
Instead, there’s some hoo-ha posted at this site about the “time-honored” American tradition of using pseudonyms, and a reference to the Federalist papers. American history was never my best subject in school, but as I recall, no one used any pseudonyms when they were signing the Declaration of Independence, a document that would have served as a death warrant for the signers if England had won the Revolutionary War.
As for whether Almanac readers object to any of the statements I’ve made about COW, the survey, public officials, bloggers, or the entertainment value of town council meetings, they know exactly where to address their comments or complaints. Just check out my byline at the top of the story.
Andrea Gemmet is an Almanac staff writer who covers Woodside.
