Apryl Marie Fogel: After months of silence watch Hoover PIO’s unexpected response to city audit inquiries (Video)

“I hope to provide a calming, strong presence should storms arise.” According to Hoover Magazine, Melanie Posey-Joseph said these words just before the first anniversary of her tenure as Hoover’s Public Information Officer.

I don’t think anyone who witnessed Posey-Joseph accost me at the end of this week’s council meeting would describe her as “a calming, strong presence.” The good news is that you can judge yourself because The Hoover Channel caught the conversation on video.  

I want to note three things from our conversation and interaction before the three videos.

First, when Posey-Joseph aggressively approached me, I decided to video record rather than audio record, as I usually do, based solely on her tone and body language. It was jarring.

As my video starts, you can hear her response to me asking if she could “hold on a moment” for me to start recording by saying, “I’m not holding on your time.”

It is astonishing and ironic that the public had to wait 80 days for answers to the questions I asked her, while two literal seconds of delay in our conversation was unacceptable to her. 

While I didn’t feel physically threatened, I was so uncomfortable, as you can see in the handheld video, that I stepped back to put some space between us. The interaction caught the attention of several key figures in the city, who can be seen pacing by, watching, and finally getting her attention enough to end the interview. 

Secondly, during our conversation, I mixed up the number of days I contacted her with the number since I submitted a public records request. She did not have 50 days. She had 80 days from the day she received my request to reply. 

Finally, she seemed to think it relevant to my public comments. My original email to her was mistakenly sent to Posey, her maiden name, not Posey-Joseph. It did not bounce back as undeliverable, but I followed up by phone and email again. As I repeatedly explained to her, the two-day difference was not included in the count of days I cited in my public remarks.

However, as you’ll see in the video, this point seemed incredibly important to her and she circled back to it several times. Let me clarify: I sent the email intended for her 82 days ago; however, through my error, the email was received 80 days before my public comments. 

What spurred the interaction was my offering up my personal experience trying to get answers from her and the city clerk’s records to encourage the city to improve its public record policies and responsiveness. You can watch that video below as well. My intent was not a personal attack on Posey-Joseph or the city clerk but an effort to highlight the city’s lack of transparency and responsiveness. 

The city website describes her role (emphasis added). “The City of Hoover Public Information Office exists to facilitate communication between the Mayor’s Office and other organizations such as neighborhood organizations, committees and boards, government agencies, media outlets, and the public at large. All requests from media outlets should be routed through the Public Information Office.”

It’s absurd that “All requests should be routed through the Public Information Office” when the PIO feels it’s a “waste of time” to reply rather than simply giving a status update, partial information, or redirect the question to someone else.

Posey-Joseph claims that my requests weren’t “in her purview,” yet no one from the city ever contacted me to say she had forwarded the request to them. Also, if responding to a request from a credentialed media outlet and credentialed journalist (radio and digital media), one on the city press list for many years, doesn’t fall within her purview, what does?  Even if you want to give credence to the baseless personal attack insult spit out and dripping with disdain, Posey-Joseph rattled off that to her I’m not a journalist but am merely a “blogger.” Should anyone inquiring about important subjects in the city be ignored? 

In January 2019, shortly after being hired, Posey-Joseph (then Posey) told the Hoover Sun that she took the job with the city, among other reasons, because “I feel like they always try to just follow a standard of excellence.” That standard of excellence is precisely what residents of Hoover expect. I encourage them to let the mayor, city manager, and council know if those expectations are currently being met.

My public comments:

My initial video upon her approach:

The view from The Hoover Channel: