Blunt takes his Cabinet on the road

SEDALIA, Mo. -- Republican Gov. Matt Blunt took his Cabinet members on the road Tuesday, setting up shop at the Pettis County Courthouse for a public listening session that his Democratic critics claimed had more to do with politics than policy.

Blunt dubbed Sedalia as Missouri's "Capitol for a Day" as he temporarily took over the office space of the county's presiding commissioner to meet with people. He stationed about 15 department directors at information tables in the courthouse's public areas.

Dozens of people showed up to chat about everything from prison sentencing to bicycle races -- a decent but certainly not overwhelming response. At times, Blunt's department directors were simply standing around talking with each other for lack of public comments or questions.

"This is designed to be an effort to make state government even more accountable and even more accessible to the people of our great state," Blunt said at a news conference outside the courthouse before the event.

The Missouri Democratic Party remained skeptical about that. The event amounted to little more than "campaigning on the taxpayers' dime," said Democratic Party executive director Ken Franklin.

Blunt's office denied that assertion.

"It sounds like sort of sour grapes," said Blunt's chief of staff, Ed Martin. "Other elected officials, they can go out and have meetings in the community, too."

Although it was billed as a chance for the public to talk with the governor, not everyone was able to do so. Blunt's staff redirected some people to department directors -- instead of the governor -- depending on their issues.

Blunt met with people privately, typically for a few minutes each. Martin said politics -- including Blunt's likely 2008 re-election campaign against Democratic challenger, Attorney General Jay Nixon -- was off limits as a topic.

Similar events are planned at other Missouri communities in the future, though no dates or places have been set, Martin said. Sedalia was picked for the first one because of logistics -- it's only about an hour's drive west of the Capitol.

Among those who talked with Blunt during his traveling "office hours" was Jerry Harlan, 79, of Sedalia. He said he urged the governor to support legislation diverting some lesser criminal offenders to mediation sessions with their victims instead of imposing traditional prison and probation sentences.

Blunt made no commitment but "he seemed favorable," said Harlan, a Democrat, who welcomed the chance to meet with the governor. The event is "obviously a politically good thing to do, but I don't think politics should interfere with people working together to get things accomplished," Harlan said.

Department of Natural Resources director Doyle Childers said about a half dozen people talked with him in about 90 minutes, including one about the park system and another about environmental issues.

Childers said he has held about 90 of his own public listening sessions around the state since taking over as director in 2005, drawing about 15 people at each one.

Tuesday's session was perhaps not the most efficient use of his time, Childers acknowledged. But "it's more efficient for the public" than trying to contact various state officials in Jefferson City, he added.