It probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise if I tell you that a lot of people don’t like me very much.

Chief among those who will never join the official Randy Seaver Fan Club is none other than Biddeford City Manager James Bennett.

According to several sources, Bennett really, really does not like me.

He hates me more than Richard Nixon hated Carl Bernstein; more than Paul LePage hates Bill Nemitz.

Of course, Jim has never said that to my face, but that’s pretty much par for the course when it comes to Biddeford’s city manager.

Some people don’t like me because I have strong opinions and rarely turn down an opportunity to share those opinions with as many people as possible.

Others are jealous of my rugged good looks, my brilliant mind and my ability to string together sentences on an empty stomach.

But mostly, people are jealous of me because of my smoking hot wife. They shake their heads, wondering how Laura could possibly want to share her bed with a significantly overweight, bald guy who wears partial dentures and takes five different medications to combat persistent mental health issues.

Sadly, every single thing in the above paragraph is absolutely true. Not a lick of sarcasm. (Smoking two packs of non-filtered cigarettes every day for nearly 40 years takes a toll. Just trust me on this.)

Back to Bennett.

While there are several people in Biddeford who would probably love to see me jump to my death from atop the MERC smokestack, few of them have as much reason to hate me as does Jim Bennett.

Over the last couple of years, I have been a thorn in Bennett’s heel. A proverbial fly in the ointment - - in short, I have been a real pain in his ass.

I have publicly critiqued his management style. I have talked and written about things that he would probably prefer to keep under the radar. I pester him, calling his office and sending him e-mails in an effort to dig up and report public information.

I have written and published stories that don’t always paint the most flattering picture of my community.

Why do I do this? Why am I such a jerk? Who needs pesky reporters roaming the hallways of City Hall unsupervised?

I mean, really. The city has its own Facebook page. In fact, our tax dollars are used so that the city can write its own news about what the city is doing. What could possibly go wrong?

Why do we need independent, third-party journalists?

I’m a believer

This coming week (March 10-16) we will once again celebrate National Sunshine Week, and it has nothing to do with turning our clocks forward one hour.

Sunshine Week is a national initiative spearheaded by the American Society of News Editors. It was founded in 2005, and its purpose is to highlight the tools and resources that the media (and the general public) has to ensure open and transparent government.

Why should Sunshine Week matter to you?

Jim Zachary, national deputy editor for CNHI, penned a column for the American Society of News Editors. The following is an excerpt:

“The media is most definitely not your enemy,” Zachary wrote. “Far from being the enemy of the people, day in and day out we take our role as the Fourth Estate (government oversight) seriously and work hard to protect your right to know, making public records requests and attending public meetings to keep you informed.

“Why?

“Because we believe all the business government does, whether in open public meetings or behind closed doors, is your business.

“We believe every last penny government spends is your money.

“We believe it is your right to know every transaction, every decision, every expenditure and every deliberation of your government.

“Whether talking about the White House, the statehouse or the county courthouse, all the documents held in government halls belong to the people, and all the business conducted by our governors is public business."

Sunshine week coincides with anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, federal legislation that was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966 just as the Vietnam War was heating up.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) provides the media with the legal muscle that we need in order to keep the public informed about government affairs.

One of the earliest and most notable uses of the FOIA was its role in the Watergate scandal. Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein had to use extraordinary tactics, which included FOIA, in order to get to the truth that eventually crumbled Richard Nixon’s presidency.

Last week, Biddeford City Manager James Bennett presented his proposed annual budget to the city council. I sat there, in the back row, taking notes. I was the only reporter there. Honestly, it made me very sad.

Thirty years ago, there would be at least three reporters at every city meeting. But it’s different now. The Portland Press Herald closed its local bureau that was located on Main Street. The locally owned Biddeford-Saco Courier was sold and the Journal Tribune, formerly the Biddeford Daily Journal, this area’s iconic news source, fell victim to the ongoing corporate butchering of local media coverage, closing its doors forever.

Today, the Portland Press Herald rarely covers local news in the Biddeford-Saco area. Reporter Gillian Graham is smart, talented and hardworking, but she is spread thin, and her employer has opted to save money by using the weekly Biddeford-Saco Courier to cover news in this neck of the woods.

Eloise Goldsmith, the Courier’s newest reporter, is also smart, talented and hard- working. That said, Goldsmith’s editors expect her to cover the communities of Biddeford, Saco, Old Orchard Beach, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel.

 Many years ago, when I was the Courier’s editor, we had one reporter covering Biddeford, another reporter covering Saco and Old Orchard Beach; and yet another reporter covering the towns of Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel for our sister publication, The Post.

Today, we are expecting one reporter to do the same job as three reporters did 25 years ago.

According to a Brookings Institution report, more than 2,000 newspapers across the country ceased publication in the last 15 years or so. The shuttering of newspapers presents a very real and present danger to our most basic freedoms.

Who cares? Who does this hurt?

Thankfully, one young woman from Old Orchard Beach (publisher’s note: I am middle- aged, but thanks Randy) decided that this area deserves a media source to help fill the coverage gap left behind by the changing local journalism landscape.

When the Journal Tribune closed its doors a few years ago, reporter Liz Gotthelf packed up her belongings and decided to launch Saco Bay News, a free online, professional news source.

Running an independent media source is no easy task. There is no such thing as a 40- hour work-week. The income sucks, the hours are long and the work is often so tedious that it causes migraines.

It is a mostly a thankless task and easily criticized by people who know very little about journalism. But Liz is fully committed. She is an idealist, and she firmly believes that you should have consistent, reliable information regarding everything from the opening of a new eatery to coverage of bank robbery, a structure fire and yes even your local budget.

 I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction)

Jim Bennett will routinely ignore my telephone calls and e-mails. It doesn’t hurt my feelings, but it’s a disservice to the people I work for: you.

I treat Jim Bennett differently than any other city employee, including department heads. I have never written (and will never write) a disparaging column about any city employee. I will not make snarky remarks or sarcastic criticisms about our hard- working talented city employees.

I treat Jim differently, however. I hold him to a higher standard. Why?

Because Jim Bennett sits at the top of the proverbial food chain. Because he wants to wear the big-boy pants. Because he has more than 40 years of experience in city government.

But mostly because he often acts egotistical, condescending, and arrogant. What a pair we make.

A few months ago, former Mayor Alan Casavant, a friend of mine, called me and said that Jim Bennett thinks I treat him unfairly (I hear that from lots of people). I like Alan. I was his campaign manager when he first ran for the mayor’s seat in 2011 (I was not working as a journalist then). So, as a favor to the former mayor, I offered to sit down with Jim and a tape recorder and conduct a one-on-one interview on any topic of his choosing.

Reportedly, Jim did not like that idea. I’m guessing he was more worried about my tape recorder than he was about me.

Councilor Marc Lessard has often found himself on the wrong side of my pen. He and I have sparred publicly for more than three decades. But you know what? Marc always returns my calls promptly.

It’s not personal, it’s business.

Few people have suffered more because of my writing than Councilor Bobby Mills. Just ask him. But you know what? Bobby Mills always returns my calls.

Why? Because Lessard and Mills have thick skin and realize that I am a direct conduit to their constituents. To them, the people’s business is more important than petty, vindictive personality battles.

In all fairness, Jim Bennett can be a nice guy when he wants to be.

Jim is intelligent, and he does have a lot of municipal experience. He is also very involved in charitable work with the non-profit Kora Shrine Temple and commits hundreds of hours annually to the Shriners and their mission to provide free medical treatment for children.

All Jim needs is a thicker skin, maybe an anxiety management plan and a better attitude. But I don’t think he needs more highly paid assistants working in the city manager’s office.

I think Larry Vaughan, the mayor of Amity Island, said it best in the movie Jaws:

“Look, Martin, if you yell barracuda, people will say “Huh? What? But if you yell FOIA, we’ll have a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July.”

As always, thank you for reading, and I welcome your thoughts, especially if you disagree with me.

Randy Seaver is a cranky, nearly insufferable malcontent living in Biddeford. He is a retired newspaper editor and the principal of a small strategic communications consulting firm.

The views and opinions herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints and opinions of Saco Bay News, its employees, publisher or advertisers. If you would like to contact the author directly: randy@randyseaver.com