Background Check
John Celock is an award winning writer, media affairs advisor and author based in Washington, D.C. A New Jersey native, John has covered politics at all levels from Town Hall to the U.S. Capitol and has built successful online publications and through his writing has had an impact on public affairs at multiple levels of government.
John served for over two years as the State Politics Reporter and Patch Liaison for The Huffington Post. While at HuffPost, John covered state politics and government around the country, along with coverage of U.S. Senate and House races. John has been credited by Rachel Maddow for coverage that defeated the transvaginal ultrasound bill in Alabama and by activists for coverage that defeated an abortion related bill in Kansas. John broke many stories at HuffPost, including Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s decision to skip a White House dinner, gun related legislation around the country and an attack on a Kansas legislative candidate for not having children.
Lightning Round
What book(s) are you reading? Eisenhower at Columbia – It’s a great look at Dwight Eisenhower’s time as president of Columbia University (which is a generally overlooked time in his career), but also a great look at the history of Columbia University in a very important time in the University’s history after the long presidency of Nicholas Murray Butler.
Last concert you attended? Concert in a plaza in my Arlington, VA neighborhood by a local band.
Favorite websites? Politico, Politics1, NJ.com, The Buffalo News, Facebook, Twitter, IMDB
Your mentors? I’m not trying to duck this question, but it is a tough one. Rather than point to any small group of mentors, I can easily note that many people have and continue to be mentors to me, including my parents, the professors I had at Niagara University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, people who I worked with early in my career who had significant experience in journalism and communications and several family friends as I was growing up.
Project(s) you are working on? Growing the Celock Media Group, including growing The Celock Report to be the go-to spot for coverage of state politics and young elected officials. I also speak to community and educational groups about politics, young elected officials and community engagement. I am also in the process of working on a new political book.
The Celock Media Group is my media affairs consulting practice. I work with clients on a variety of media affairs needs including media relations, media training and planning, and state and local issue advocacy work. The Celock Report is a nonpartisan political news website focused on state politics and young elected officials around the country. I do not cover issues that I work on in the media affairs realm.
The Interview
Talk about your three proudest career accomplishments?
- My book. The Next Generation: Young Elected Officials and their Impact on American Politics (Continuum International Publishing 2010). From the first interview on the Jersey City waterfront to publication it took four years and it was an amazing experience. From the people I interviewed, to the stories I learned, to digesting over 90 interviews and weaving them together to write an informative, educational and above all interesting narrative, it is an adventure that I enjoyed every minute of and something I am incredibly proud of.
- Being the launch editor of Westfield Patch from 2009 to 2011. Coming in to launch the fourth Patch site in the nation, when no one had heard of Patch and in a community that had never had a dedicated online news presence or daily news presence is intimidating to say the least. But in my two years I was able to build a profitable site that not only led a century old weekly newspaper in market share but also provided timely news and a valuable service to the Westfield, N.J. community, and it is something that I am incredibly proud of. I focused the site on a lot of quality of life issues and the issues of importance to the community including education, public safety, parking, the downtown business community and community groups. This focus had a real impact on the community, including promoting charitable endeavors and small non-profits, highlighting all neighborhoods, focusing on the impact of budget cuts to the Fire Department, the impact of state aid cuts to the local school system and the management of the schools generally and getting things done in town. My work at Patch was credited with saving the job of a teacher in the Westfield schools. I would get calls from people asking about getting snow plowed and potholes fixed and questions about everything going on in town. Being able to build a successful business and have that impact on the daily lives of the residents of Westfield is something I will always remember.
- Launching The Celock Report and the Celock Media Group. Launching my own media affairs business and guiding and shaping my own news site is something of which I am immensely proud. Being able to take the experiences and skill sets I have from throughout my career and combine them together to shape and launch this business has been a thrilling experience. The state political news sphere is one that is lacking on a national level and having a nonpartisan news site dedicated to these issues is something that I have seen is needed. Media affairs is an important part of the political and governmental process and allows for elected and appointed leaders and advocacy groups to relate better to constituencies and build grassroots support for policy. Being able to take my experience working as a reporter at the national, state and local levels to work in this sphere has been great. I am looking forward to continuing to grow this business.
In your opinion, who are the top five local government leaders?
This was a tough question to answer. There are a lot of very innovative local government leaders around the country. To answer this one I wanted to include a mix of leaders from large cities and smaller communities in order to best represent the diversity of local governments around the country.
Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop: Steve Fulop has an interesting back-story that has helped shape how he governs New Jersey’s second largest city. A Marine Corps veteran who enlisted after witnessing the Sept. 11 attacks from his Goldman Sachs office, he ran for the Jersey City Council in 2005 as the outsider candidate against a powerful machine. Serving two terms on the City Council, he carved out a niche pushing ethics reform, but also promoting the interests of his downtown constituency and quality of life improvements, along with education reform. Since becoming mayor he’s interjected new life into city government, including new Fourth of July events, a nationally recognized prisoner reentry program and economic development in the low income areas of the city. He’s considered a likely 2017 candidate for governor of New Jersey.
Westfield Downtown Corporation Director Sherry Cronin: Sherry Cronin is the woman who keeps one of New Jersey’s most active downtowns thriving. While the job might seem easy in a town that has a roughly even split between chain stores and small businesses – creating an outdoor mall feel – Cronin, her staff and volunteer board, work to provide new reasons for Westfield to be a destination for NYC metro area shoppers. She oversees a variety of marketing programs and other events including a summer time concert series and the annual 5K pizza race that attracts tens of thousands to Westfield every July. Her work includes helping to recruit new businesses to town and create an environment that retains and attracts shoppers to the community. She has worked with neighboring communities in a collaborative effort to create a corridor of downtowns that complement each other. Her hard work and innovative spirit has helped the downtown weather several challenges including the national economic downturn and overzealous parking enforcement, that questions whether some in Westfield government are trying to balance the budget on the backs of shoppers. In addition she coordinated the town’s participation in the America in Bloom competition, which brought valuable advice on how to better the community and is active in the Westfield Historical Society. She’s a good example of how a local government leader can become a vital part of the community’s spirit and drive, and create a strong and thriving economic community.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti: As a city councilman and as mayor, Eric Garcetti has been innovative about transforming Los Angeles and showing the spirit of young elected officials in government. He has been looking to transform LA’s image as a car dependent city and pushing new pedestrian programs and mass transit. He has also been working on affordability issues and promoting new avenues for the creative industries in the city. He’s been looking for ways to address the drought situation in his community and state and has been upfront with uniformed services on the city’s fiscal situation. Garcetti has put energy into his work in leading the city and I would not be surprised if you see him running statewide within the next few years.
Erie County, PA Councilman Jay Breneman: Jay Breneman is a veteran and a member of the County Council in Erie County, PA. He’s using his background as a veteran to push for increased economic opportunities for veterans in his county and using this to push for economic development in the county and in the city of Erie. He has worked with local businesses to increase job opportunities for veterans, along with working to create new veterans affairs programs within county government. Erie is part of the Rust Belt, a region of the country that has had economic difficulties. A push to increase veterans hiring in this region is something that can help both veterans and the local economy by keeping people in the region and providing valuable skill sets for employers.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer: Gale Brewer is a technocrat in the best sense of the word. She’s been in New York City government for several decades both as a staffer and elected official, along with a few years in the 1970s as an aide to a then lieutenant governor. Brewer has been pushing technology in government for years, in an effort to boost transparency and get more city data out there, including passing the city’s open data law. She founded and chaired the City Council’s technology committee and created one of the first city government websites in NYC as a deputy public advocate. She’s also known for a very constituent oriented approach and that included attending numerous events when she was a councilwoman. Her current office may not be the most powerful in the city but she’s focusing it very much on its core land use duties and quality of life issues, including a recent successful push for a ticker tape parade for the USA Women’s World Cup champions.
Convince us that running for elected office is a good idea.
Elected officials are the final decision makers in government, and they are the ones that have the power of the purse. Granted the day-to-day decisions in local government are made by staffers and not by the largely part time officials, but the general directions are set by the elected officials. And I am sure many staffers have been frustrated by elected officials changing priorities and policies to appeal to the electorate or based on the election. I know I have seen it myself, including some pretty dramatic turnarounds that delayed important projects.
Describe how the media views local government? How can we improve the perceptions?
The media views local government as both responsive and unresponsive. The responsive comes from local government coming closest to the people and being the easiest for the media to reach at times. The unresponsive comes from what can be seen as bureaucracy that is not wanting to comment or is resistant to change. The best way to improve perceptions is to take time to talk to the media, on background, explain how things are done, and explain the budget and other policies. Take the time to get to know the media and be able to move forward from there. At times just taking the time to talk to the media and explain why there is a delay, etc. can clear up any perceptions and allow for a good working relationship going forward.
Give one or two issues that are not receiving enough attention from local government?
- Community Engagement – Local government does a good job at engaging the community in terms of being responsive to questions but more can be done. Local government should work to engage residents through a proactive approach which includes engaging residents where they are. This can include social media, websites, town halls around the community and informal engagements at local businesses.
- Community Building – While a lot of this can be done by outside groups, local government has an important role to play in community building, through various programs and events around town. These can be large-scale events such as fairs and weekly farmers markets or more small scale as programs through the Recreation Department or the downtown development agency. These programs are important to building the quality of life in the community and making the community desirable as a place to live. They improve property values as people want to live in the community and they also help improve economic development as the events can draw in more people to your downtown, which in turn provides more consumers. Local government can partner with other groups to help stage and finance these events in order to cut down on manpower and cost for the government. Local government can serve as a powerful incubator to help put these programs together.
Summarize a few themes from your work in interviewing young elected officials?
There are four key reasons why a young person (under the age of 35) runs for elective office. Some of these reasons do overlap in a person with one being a primary and others being secondary.
- They are the son or daughter of an elected official or have another family history in politics.
- An idealist who believes the best way to effect change is through elective office.
- A staffer who did not have plans to run for elective office but then sees that if their boss can do it, then they can do it too.
- Someone who has always wanted to run for elective office and decides to make his or her start at a young age.
Young elected officials tend to think outside the box more. They tend to look at new ways to campaign and also on how to govern and are not tied to the way things are always done. At the same time they are also willing to explore ideas that might not have been popular once. They are also more willing to take risks in government and be willing to say that if they don’t win again then they can move on to another career. Now this is not to say that other elected officials don’t do similar things, but in general I have seen young elected officials more willing to do this.
If you can interview five people (dead or alive), who would be on that list?
- Michael Bloomberg – He’s shown himself in business and politics to be one of the most innovative leaders out there.
- Theodore Roosevelt – He was a reformer as New York’s governor and New York City police commissioner and a fairly innovative president. Particularly interested in interviewing him on his reform agenda and his push for conservation.
- Pope Francis – He has taken to repositioning the entire Catholic Church and showing himself to be a new kind of Pope.
- Harry Truman – One of the least likely presidents in American history but also one who governed at a very consequential time and had to take over the shadow of FDR.
- Robert Moses – Who wouldn’t want to interview the man who basically reshaped New York?
Evaluate local governments willingness to embrace new technologies?
Overall the trend is positive but it is still very much a case by case basis. We’re seeing more technology advanced websites, particularly in larger local governments, but there are still many that are bare bones and provide basic information to a user. In terms of social media it is the same thing, some local governments or officials are very good in terms of providing updates on social media while others either do not embrace it or do not do a good job in embracing it.
The key is to provide a robust online presence, one that provides timely and needed information, along with a willingness to engage. Local governments need to look at an online presence as not just a public information tool but also a marketing tool. It is a great way to market your community to new residents or to visitors from neighboring towns who will boost the local economy. I know from my time at Westfield Patch, some features that were embraced by the community were the events calendar and the directory listing for town departments, services and parks. While I would not complain that they came to Patch for this information, a lot of these services can also reside on a local website. Instead of just providing a list of parks, my directory included a summary of the park’s features, an interactive map and pictures of the park. This is great for a new resident who doesn’t know the town, a potential resident evaluating where to move or a nearby resident looking for a new place to go who will then explore the rest of your community and boost your downtown retail district.
In terms of social media, again it is a question of how you use it in local government, in particular on how you engage people. I have seen some really good Facebook and Twitter accounts which put out a variety of information and also answer questions and also try to have some fun. But I have seen a lot that are very, very dry, do not answer questions, do not retweet relevant comments and basically do nothing that suggests that people should even read the account.
A good one that jumps out to me is the Cranford, N.J. Police Department Facebook page, which is very interactive and also puts a mix of important information out there with human interest pieces on officers, and even puts up information about the high school sports. And while it is state government not local, the Tweeting Troopers of Kansas deserve mention. The regional PIO troopers of the Kansas Highway Patrol all have their own Twitter accounts and they have fun with them and share very important information about public safety topics but in a fun and informative way.
At the same time there are examples of what not to do in terms of technology in local government. Case in point would be the Westfield, N.J. Board of Education’s long journey in deciding to have a Facebook page and Twitter account for the school district. While the idea was first proposed by a board member in 2010, almost endless study was put into the idea with debates over should the public actually comment on the pages and interact with the board. The debate led to a headline in May 2011 “BOE Supports Transparency, Prohibiting Public Comment on Facebook Page” where the board voted in favor of a transparency initiative and at the same time said they wanted no public comment on Facebook. The debate came after several years where those in the community questioned whether the district wanted community input and several board members were elected in response to what was seen as no community engagement by the board. The two social media networks are now used by the school system but they are fairly bland posts that do not interact with those who might comment or otherwise seek to engage the community.
The key is for local governments to embrace technology as another way to share information and to engage constituencies. The key is to provide an outlet for residents to engage with local officials and receive information that they might need. A place where they can get information about what is going on in the community. Obviously comments would need to be monitored and the local government would want to maintain a positive image through these accounts, but allowing for residents to see an engaged local government, rather than a passive one through an online portal is what is needed. I would say that local governments are moving in this direction which is a positive step and one that I can see continuing nationally.
(Complete the sentence) In 2025, local government will be…..more connected to the local population and handling constituent requests across a variety of platforms.