Hellooooo, sunshine!!

Nope, I’m not talking about the weather.

This week, March 16-22, is Sunshine Week, which according to http://www.sunshineweek.org/ “is about the public's right to know what its government is doing, and why.

“Sunshine Week,” states the website, “seeks to enlighten and empower people to play an active role in their government at all levels, and to give them access to information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger.”

As a general rule, we, the people, have access to government information. N.C. General Statute 132-1(b) points out: “The public records and public information compiled by the agencies of North Carolina government or its subdivisions are the property of the people.”

The statutes allow government officials to meet and communicate confidentially, but usually temporarily and always for specific purposes only, such as to discuss economic incentives, personnel and ongoing lawsuits. (For specifics, see the Open Meetings law linked at right on the blog's main page.)

Care to see handwritten notes your town manager took while on a town-related phone call yesterday? Have at it. Curious about what your elected officials are discussing through e-mails? It’s all yours. Thanks to the N.C. Public Records Law (also linked at right on the blog's main page), all you have to do is ask. No one can even ask you why you want it.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the government will make it easy for you.

And, as you could probably guess, I have an entertaining story about that.

Somewhat surprisingly, I never had an issue obtaining public records from the Town of Mooresville in the few years I covered local government for the newspaper. Even when the information reflected poorly on the town, it was provided promptly – and for free. I recall one occasion in particular when I requested so many public e-mails that they packed three separate 3-inch binders. They were given to me within an extremely reasonable amount of time, and I don't recall the town charging me a penny.

Then came CH2M Hill and Town Manager Jamie Justice, who repeatedly took a beating in the newspaper because of his decisions involving developers, CH2M Hill, an overdue commercial water bill and on and on and on …

In August 2007, I reported the town's reimbursement of thousands of dollars in questionable CH2M Hill expenses, which, lo and behold, I had discovered through public records.

That story continued for some time due to the mayor calling for an “internal investigation” into the expenses. And we all know how slow government can move …

So maybe the town manager was still fuming on Oct. 24, 2007, when I requested copies of the previous three weeks' e-mails (including deleted ones) to and from town commissioners. The municipal elections were two weeks away, and any government employee with half a lick of common sense would have assumed (correctly) that I was looking for something in particular – and that I wanted it before the elections.

In my request, which I submitted to Justice, I asked him to “please let me know if these e-mails can be forwarded to me electronically or if I’ll need to pick up hard copies. If I need to pick up hard copies, please let me know where and when.”

A week after my request, I hadn’t heard from Justice, so I sent him a brief e-mail, inquiring about the status.

Another two days passed. Nothing. So on Nov. 1, I sent yet another e-mail to Justice and copied every town commissioner and the mayor, town attorney and town clerk.

Justice responded the following day, saying the documents were “undergoing legal review for compliance with the public records law.” Five days later, he e-mailed again, stating that the records should be ready the following day, Nov. 7 – the day after the municipal elections.

N.C. General Statute 132-6(a) requires that public records be provided “as promptly as possible.” Was two weeks prompt? That’s a matter of interpretation. But the town had previously complied with much bigger requests, much more promptly.

So back to Nov. 7, Town Clerk Janet Pope notified me via e-mail that the public records were ready – and for $136.50, I could have them.

In other words, instead of pushing a button or two to send the records to me electronically, as I had originally requested, the town government -- the stewards of our tax dollars -- chose to waste 1,365 pieces of paper and who-knows-how-many hours of staff time to make Xerox copies of the records.

I didn’t have to pay for the copies, thanks to N.C. General Statute 132-6.2(a), which states: “Persons requesting copies of public records may elect to obtain them in any and all media in which the public agency is capable of providing them. No request for copies of public records in a particular medium shall be denied on the grounds that the custodian has made or prefers to make the public records available in another medium.”

Citing that statute, I reminded the town that I had originally asked for the copies to be sent electronically. Additionally, I offered my own disk on which the records could be copied. Justice responded that the records were already copied on paper and that I would need to pick them up from the town clerk’s office. I responded, again, that I would be happy to provide my own disk, but that I wanted the records to be provided electronically.

(Amid all this, I was told that Justice had forwarded at least one commissioner, via e-mail, the records I had requested, so obviously the town was capable of providing the copies electronically.)

I guess the town didn’t need my disk after all because I soon received an e-mail from the town clerk that a disk of the documents was ready for me to pick up in her office. There was no further discussion about the $136.50.

I wonder if they recycled those 1,365 pieces of paper they wasted …

Another beef I have is this: N.C. General Statute 132-1(b) states that “people may obtain copies of their public records and public information free or at minimal cost unless otherwise specifically provided by law. As used herein, ‘minimal cost’ shall mean the actual cost of reproducing the public record or public information.”

In other words, the town can charge to make paper copies of public records. And while I have no idea what the “actual cost of reproducing” a record is, I found it interesting that Staples, a private business, charged 8 cents for a Xerox copy, but the Town of Mooresville, which is publicly funded, charged 10 cents.

Through taxes, Mooresville citizens have already paid for the paper the town uses for the copies, and we’re already paying the salary of the person who’s pushing buttons and watching sheets of paper whip through the Xerox machine. So why are we also being charged for copies, especially at a higher rate than a local private business charges?

Beats me.

Okay, so what’s the moral of my story?

First, though public records are called public records for a reason – because they belong to the public – some government employees might not make it easy for us to obtain them. In my most recent experience, as detailed above, it appears the town manager was trying to make it difficult for me, a member of the public, to access those records. But, hey, we have to pick and choose our battles. Justice resigned as town manager in February per the town board's request. Why kick a man while he's down?

Moving on, then, to lesson number two: despite what some government officials and employees might have you believe, you are the boss. Through voting, you are directly responsible for electing the commissioners of the Town of Mooresville. And those commissioners are directly responsible for hiring and firing the town manager, who is directly responsible for hiring and firing the government employees who will comply – or not – with your requests for public records.

Third, if you’re going to request public documents, first familiarize yourself with the Public Records law so you don’t unjustly get stuck with a $136.50 bill from somebody who would enjoy nothing more than sticking it to you.

And finally, if you ever plan to request public documents from the Town of Mooresville, please take my advice: ask for them to be provided electronically. Through my experience, we have learned that town employees are, in fact, capable of providing them to you on a disk for free – but that sometimes, for reasons unknown, they might choose to waste our town resources instead.

Happy Sunshine Week, everybody!