Mayor Chuck Tooley has invited me to a workshop Monday on city-media relations. His letter proposes (with some paraphrasing):
1. That when the media request information that may jeopardize individual privacy, all parties will agree to seek and abide by a judge's ruling.
2. The City Council won't act on any such matter until the judge has ruled.
3. The council wants to create a committee of members of the media to review requests that the city considers burdensome and then make recommendations.
These might be matters worthy of serious consideration, but since I have my blogging hat on, I'll just dash off a few leather-headed opinions.
1. I don't want to have anything to do with this. I want the city to grant all legal requests and deny the rest. It's my job to protect privacy when warranted when I decide what to publish, but it's not my job to help the city control access to information.
2. If I were to serve on the committee the mayor has proposed, my recommendation in every case would be that the city comply promptly and fully with both the letter and spirit of the law. Since I'm not the city's legal adviser, my advice would never go beyond that.
3. It doesn't really matter to me whether requests to the city for information are made in good faith or bad, with pure motives or corrupt, in service of the greater good or not. My only concern is whether the requests are legal. If they are, then the information ought to be released.
4. I can't afford lawyers. If the city improperly denies me information, I want to be compensated.
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6 comments:
David,
My opinion, not that it's being sought: A government entity has three repsonsibilities when it receives a request for documents. 1) Determine whether the requested document is a public record.
2) If it is a public record, redact information that may identify a third person who has a privacy interest. Name, address, social security number, ect. The number on a city-owned police patrol car does not count...
3)Release the public record in a timely manner.
No more, no less. Not difficult.
Good luck.
The mayor's proposals sound like they are designed to delay a breaking story. How does that serve a free people?
Greg,
Precisely. Thanks for your comment.
Why doesn't Tooley just stay out of it all and let the new council deal with it? He has helped cause a big enought mess already.
The City never quits does it?
It will be interesting what sort of job his Honor the Mayor lands in January...
2. "The City Council won't act on any such matter until the judge has ruled." Sounds like the mayor wants to continue the delay and deceive mode that they have currently been operating under.
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