Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Open Records - What's So Hard About That?

Any long term reader of this blog knows that there is no love lost between me and council member Kevin Straub.

But, like most folks, he is not always wrong. Sometimes he is right.

Here's the situation: Next Monday night the council will be voting on the 2010 budget. Apparently Straub has for quite some time been requesting certain information pertaining to expenditures. City staff appears unwilling to email the info to him and wants to meet with him in person.

I'm at a loss on this. I have seen his emails about this. The info he is requesting is public info. Any individual can go to city hall, fill out a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request and obtain the very same info. So, what is the problem with emailing the info to him? He is a council member, voting on the budget.

I am no lawyer but something is wrong here. Very wrong. As the title says: Open records - what's so hard about that? Give him the info.