City of Greensboro public relations an embarrassing disgrace

Somebody needs to take a hands-on approach to improving the quality of service and the level of competence the City of Greensboro staff exhibit in dealing with public relations.

Here are some recent examples of how low the standards are:

• Atrocious grammar in communications with the media.
• Records request stymied because staff did not understand "guidelines" and "protocols" to be synonymous.
• An online staff directory that remains out-of-order for weeks since this blogger first noticed.
• Embarrassing misspelling appended to every email from the public information desk for a month after it was brought to their attention:
  

Signature attached to emails from the City of Greensboro public information desk

These examples are small compared to the experiences I've had over the past few months with employees colluding to keep public records hidden, promising action then not following through, ignoring inquiries and exhibiting ignorance of the requirements of public records law, but they are all of a piece: a lack of quality preparation and competence among staff in handling public affairs.*

* There are a few individual exceptions whose high professionalism does not go unnoticed, but they are, unfortunately, overshadowed by the predominate incompetence.