I enjoyed and appreciated reading Jerry Cornfield’s July 9 column regarding acting State Auditor Jan Jutte. I agree with the main point of his article that the state Auditor’s Office has apparently functioned well under her brief but effective management.
I know that journalists truly appreciate the power of language and strive to use their words in a fair way. However, I take exception with Mr. Cornfield’s derogatory language in the column referring to Mr. Kelly’s position as state auditor as “the public trough.” In my view this is a highly offensive phrase that implies and reinforces an image that public employees are somehow not entitled to the same respect for their work as their counterparts in the private sector. In my view, the use of this term encourages disrespect and distrust of public employees, an attitude that I perceive as already widespread and excessive in our culture. I would hope that most reporters for the Herald would agree that public employees generally — regardless of anyone’s specific opinion about Mr. Kelly — are not swinish and contemptible scoundrels taking cynical advantage of hard-working private sector taxpayers, which is the image that this phrase creates for me. The use of “public trough” to describe public service creates a stereotypical and unfair image of dedicated public employees.
As someone who has spent nearly 30 years in public service I have deep appreciation for the many men and women that I have had the pleasure to know that devote their careers to providing public services and programs. I see this as an honorable profession that more often than not attracts people who sincerely see great value in serving the public. I would encourage journalists to consider avoiding the use of “public trough” in general reference to public employees. I suggest that there are far more specific and telling phrases for reporters to convey dismay with the performance of Mr. Kelly and others like him that they may view as potentially taking unfair advantage of their positions in government. While there are likely to be conditions where this phrase may most accurately describe a misuse of public trust for personal gain, I look forward to the day when “public trough” is mostly retired from use in the same way as the words “hack” or “inked-stained wretch” have mostly fallen from use as derogatory references to writers and journalists.
Larry Bauman is the city manager of Snohomish.
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