Open government
For those who can afford it, fill out forms in triplicate, and send them certified mail to some bureaucrat, who might open it in the next couple of weeks:
The new Loudon County Mayor decided that citizens asking for public records were just too damned pesky so he decided to assess a fee of $25 and required all records requests to be in writing. BOTH of these policies are illegal. Attorney Phil Harber has filed suit on behalf of Loudon County residents to STOP this raw arrogance by someone who is supposed to be a public servant, not a public tyrant.
September 22nd, 2006 at 11:40 am
It’s worse than you think. I sent in a FOIA request to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and was told “no such document exists”. The problem was, I had created several of those non-existent documents. Plus friends still working there told me the documents were still there. It turns out that even though they are “required” by law to turn over the information their is no penalty if they don’t. You then have to take them to court which is far more expensive than $25 and at the end they merely have to turn over the documents without anyone being penalized for non-compliance with the law.
September 24th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Wait a second, congress didnt build any penalties into the FOIA? Why would a government entity possibly comply with the law then?
September 24th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
Hell, I’ll go a step further as ask if there’s any laws that compel public servants to do anything, with the threat of jail time or a hefty fine if they don’t.
The only one I can think of off the top of my head is the Posse Comitatus Act , and there’s enough exceptions there to probably weasel your way out of almost anything (During the Beltway sniper-shootings, they were using air force planes to search for the profiled “crazy white guy” in the white van/truck)
Funny how they never ‘forget’ to leave out the punishment when the law applies to private individuals.