“We are not trying to obfuscate or deny his request.”

Not in any way! And yet, we will give you the run-around, charge you for redacting the names you don’t think should be redacted, assert that the records fall under the “working papers” exemption and make you wait until the end of the school year.

And we will also coin the phrase, “FOIA is a large law.”

Judge says: “Deliberate indifference and ineptitude”

In a fascinating case from Louisiana, district judge Janice Clark ruled yesterday that two state agencies displayed “deliberate indifference and ineptitude ris[ing] to [the] level of arbitrary and capricious” in their response to a records request under the Louisiana Sunshine Law.

The case has to do with Louisiana’s laws for tax credits for movie production studios. The law changed in 2007 in a way that may prevent some production studios from qualifying for the credit. As a result, an interested party sought documents from the two states agencies that have the most to do with these laws to see how the legal changes were discussed within the agencies during the time that the statutory changes were under consideration.

An attorney for the interested party filed a lawsuit alleging that not all the records were properly surrendered when an employee of one of the agencies turned over a storehouse of records directly to the attorney. These records had not been included in the records provided to the attorney by the agencies themselves.

(Independent confirmation that an agency didn’t give you all the records you requested is the stuff of dreams for FOIA requestors.)

The agencies apparently ran a few keyword searches when the records were originally requested, and turned over a “small set” of records. As the lawsuit progressed, the agencies managed to find about 2,600 documents that they provided for the first time during the trial.

The agencies say they did make a good-faith effort to fulfill the original request. The judge ruled that the evidence presented during a 10-hour hearing on Monday suggests that “ineptitude” and “deliberate indifference” work better for her than “good faith” and “sincere” as descriptions of how the agencies handled themselves.

Great use of FOIA: Case #372

The Dallas Morning News did a great investigation recently using the Texas Public Information Act.

Judge Keller’s disclosures omit nearly $2 million in real estate, public records show.

The story is about Sharon Keller, the chief judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. In 2007, Keller declined to hear a last-minute appeal of Michael Richard, who was executed later that night.

This led to a complaint against Keller by the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct. Keller is seeking to have those charges dismissed on the grounds that mounting a defense would be financially ruinous. Judges in Texas are required to disclose their financial holdings. A year ago, when Keller disclosed hers, she omitted to disclose about $2 million in real estate holdings. The fact that she owns this much real estate might undermine her claim that she would be financially ruined by defending against the judicial conduct charges.

The Dallas Morning News knows about this because they pored over public records of real estate holdings.

Besides defending herself against judicial conduct charges, Keller may now have to defend herself against a separate set of charges having to do with failure to disclose all her real estate holdings.

Georgia redaction case

The Gainesville Times, which covers Gainesville, Georgia, a town of about 35,000, has filed a lawsuit against the city over the fact that the city is redacting names from a requested copy of an anonymous letter the city received alleging that its former city manager was sexually harrassing several city employees.

Two of the names that the newspaper wants, and the city is so far refusing to provide, are the names of employees that the anonymous letter-writer says were harrassed by the city manager.

I have mixed feelings about this. If I worked for a private company and my boss was sexually harrassing me — and someone sent an anonymous letter to the company’s human resources department reciting those facts — the local newspaper doesn’t have a legal right to a copy of that anonymous letter.

But if I work for a city, my boss is harrassing me, and someone sends an anonymous letter to the city — a letter I had nothing to do with, but which presumes to mention my name — then the local newspaper does (or might) have a legal right to discover my name.

Awkward. Especially if, as is often the case, the sexual harrassment victim is young and relatively powerless–one might say that this person has become an object several times over.

The simple transparency solution

Transparency and accountability: The simple solution.

There is no doubt that “open government “and “honest government” are viewed by the majority of the population as oxymorons. However, you can also place the words campaign promise at the top of the same list. Everyone from the President of the United States to your neighbor, who recently campaigned for a local school board seat, promised more transparency if they are elected. Unfortunately, once victory is achieved, political realities set in and power at any level, too often corrupts.

I like the phrase “information asymmetry” in one of the comments, as in:

“Information asymmetry is the most powerful tool our politician-overlords have at their disposal. They won’t give that up without a dirty fight. Thanks for the ray of hope.”

(Politician-overlords? Must be a member of the tiny libertarian conspiracy.)

Records available on Dutchess county websites

The Poughkeepsie Journal is one of several newspapers that recently conducted a survey of government websites in their readership area to assess the types of information available on those websites.

Dutchess towns’ web content has grown, but gaps remain.

In the case of the Poughkeepsie Journal, they evaluated 22 municipalities in Dutchess County.

Among other things, the Poughkeepsie Journal discovered:

Fourteen municipalities with Web sites do not post their annual budgets.

See also:

My Government Website.

Reflecting on the legacy of Ron Sims

As Ron Sims moves to a position of high authority in the Obama administration, the Seattle P-I reflects on his legacy in Sims oversaw huge public-records fines.

The man President Barack Obama selected to be his top deputy at the Department of Housing and Urban Development is leaving his last public job with a huge legal bill for violating Washington’s open government laws, in a case tied to Seattle’s taxpayer-financed NFL stadium and its biggest booster, billionaire Paul Allen.

Obama has pledged a new era of government transparency. But his nominee for No. 2 job at HUD, Ron Sims, ultimately was responsible as the elected chief executive of Washington state’s largest county for a saga of delays and denials that judges have deemed an inexcusable breach of open government laws.

The case is Yousoufian v. Office of Ron Sims.

Kay Mullins: Sunshine Troublemaker of the Week

Allow me to introduce you to Kay Mullins of Winnebago County, Illinois. Kay is the 44th recipient of our Sunshine Troublemaker of the Week award.

See: FOIA appeal going to Harlem board.

Kay earned her spurs as an STOTW when Harlem Township Supervisor Doug Aurand’s decided that for the sin of asking for copies of public documents, he was going to have to rebuke her and smite her mightily in the local newspaper by saying:

“These people are on what some people would call a political witch hunt. This woman is a political operative for my opponent. They’re trying anything they can to spear my 38 years as an elected official.”

Bad Kay!

What Kay Mullins is trying to get:

I’ve asked for expenditures, and I’ve been through the expenditures for the last 22 months. I’ve asked for a lot of details to back those expenditures up, and I’ve asked for their Freedom of Information Act policy…There’s a series of records they’ve been reluctant to give to me, such as bank statements and a trial balance (a balance of debits and credits recorded in bookkeeping ledger) for March 31, 2008. They said they probably didn’t have it.”

Or as the irate supervisor puts it:

“From Jan. 1, 2004 to the present, she has asked for every payment, phone bill, bank statements and invoices.”

Kay: Do you feel like you’re being told, “Just shut up and pay your taxes”?

Doug Aurand: Try putting your checkbook register online. That way, residents in your township won’t have to waste their time filing open records requests, and won’t have to undergo a unseemly public tongue-lashing from you, in order to gain access to information that everyone in your township should be able to access with the click of a mouse.

More court records may become open in Kentucky

John Minton, chief justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court, is said to be new rules that will open more records in Kentucky:

Especially:

They may open administrative records of Supreme Court agencies, which include the Kentucky Bar Association, the Board of Bar Examiners and the Judicial Conduct Commission.

Interviews with North Carolina government officials

I like the series that the Charlotte Observer is running this week where they are publishing interviews with government officials to get their take on open records compliance.