The San Francisco Public Press will host a talk with veteran reporter Miranda Spivack next week to discuss many local governments’ proclivity for secrecy.
With decades of local news reporting under her belt, Spivack will discuss her forthcoming book “Backroom Deals in Our Backyards: How Government Secrecy Harms our Communities — and the Local Heroes Fighting Back.”
Spivack is a longtime resident of the Washington, D.C. area and has spent much of her career reporting on secrecy and concealment in local and state governments. Some of that reporting appeared in Reveal as “State Secrets,” an investigative series given the Sunshine Award by the Society for Professional Journalists in 2017.
Her upcoming book — set for publication in March 2025 — will chronicle the stories of individuals who sought to solve problems in their communities and took on local and state governments that withheld public information.
She said she hopes the event’s audience will come away with a greater understanding of secrecy in local and state governments, which she said seldom face scrutiny for mismanagement of public funds.
“What really happens in your backyard is very important, but doesn’t really get the attention that it should,” Spivack said. “A lot of these governments and government agencies and school systems operate without a lot of scrutiny from the media and from the public.”
Everybody’s doing it
As part of two decades writing and editing for different Washington Post publications, Spivack reported on Prince George’s County in Maryland, which she called a “very extreme case” of government secrecy. The work, she added, got her thinking about how widespread secrecy among local governments could be.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Investigative reporter and editor Miranda Spivack in conversation with Lila LaHood, executive director of the San Francisco Public Press
WHEN: Thursday, July 11, 2024, 6-8 p.m.
WHERE: Kanbar Performing Arts Center, 44 Page St., San Francisco
COST: Tickets are priced on a sliding scale between $10 and $35; pre-event reception tickets are $250.
INFORMATION: San Francisco Public Press
“I thought, ‘God, it can’t just be happening here,’” Spivack said. “And it isn’t. It’s happening all over the United States.”
She said her book chronicles five people — previously inexperienced in community organizing and investigating governmental wrongdoing — and their stories of exposing state secrecy and taking on challenges facing their communities.
One of those five is Diane Cotter, the spouse of a Massachusetts firefighter who discovered that some firefighting gear is tainted with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. According to the National Institutes of Health, research has linked PFAS to increased risk of cancers, weakened immunity and altered metabolism.
Spivack said Cotter’s discovery followed years of lobbying state officials and union leaders to investigate toxic chemicals in firefighting gear and collaboration between private industry and government to keep PFAS-tainted gear a secret.
“I thought, ‘God, it can’t just be happening here,’ and it isn’t. It’s happening all over the United States.” Miranda Spivack
“Everything that happens in your state and local government has an impact on your life that you can actually see and feel,” Spivack said. “People really need to understand how these state and local governments operate — where you can push back and have an impact.”
Meet the press
The main event will consist of a conversation between Spivack and Lila LaHood, publisher of the San Francisco Public Press. The talk will run for two hours from 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, July 11, at the Kanbar Performing Arts Center, 44 Page St. in San Francisco’s Civic Center neighborhood.
San Francisco Public Press will also host a reception and fundraiser at 5 p.m. before the main event. The pre-event reception and fundraiser will allow attendees to speak one-on-one with Spivack and Public Press reporters, Public Press development director Lisa Rudman said.
Rudman added that proceeds from the event will benefit reporters, editors and investigations at the Public Press, which is a nonprofit news organization.
Tickets to the main event are priced on a sliding scale between $10 and $35, and tickets to the pre-event fundraiser cost $250. Prospective attendees can purchase tickets through Eventbrite or request a sponsored ticket by emailing community@sfpublicpress.org.
“At this historical moment, the topic of local government opacity is crucial,” Rudman said. “We need transparency from the institutions that represent us so we can hold them accountable.”
