Do City Attorneys Understand the Open Records Law?

Time and again, I've discussed the contempt this administration has shown for citizen oversight - at least I thought it was contempt. Now, I'm leaning towards incompetence. Yesterday, the News-Sentinel posted a piece about public accountant Ron Reinking's request for information regarding Harrison Square financing. The amazing part isn't that the city hasn't responded in the timeframe required by law, it's that they don't even KNOW they are in violation:

A week ago today, Ronald Reinking, a Fort Wayne accountant, sent a letter on behalf of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation to the city’s Redevelopment Commission asking for more financial information about the $125 million-to-$160 million downtown revitalization project.

Reinking said he has yet to hear any response to his query.

Redevelopment Commission President Christopher Guerin said he received it Friday but understood from talking with city attorneys and Greg Leatherman, deputy director of community development, the request would need to be filed under the Freedom of Information Act because Reinking asks for information that will require new documents to be created at a considerable investment in time.

Freedom of Information Act? That's the federal law governing information requests but the state has it's own law - the Open Records Law. Granted many people, including myself, throw around the term FOIA in regards to information requests but city attorneys should know the difference.

Still, he said the commission would supply all the information under the right circumstances.

The right circumstance? State law allows for citizens to make their requests in person, over the phone, fax, email, letter, etc. So what exactly is wrong about this circumstance? Is it simply that the city doesn't want to comply? That would be in line with their modus operandi. Since city attorneys have failed Mr Guerin, let me remind him that he is ALREADY in violation of the law by not responding within 7 days. My suggestion would be for Mr Reinking to contact Indiana's Public Access Counselor to get a ruling on this matter...

UPDATE: Looks like the city is going to comply w/ Mr Reinking's request afterall. Quite a change since the story in yesterday's News Sentinel - did the mayor just return from the US Mayor's Conference and start cracking skulls? Whatever the reason, their response to the records request is a welcomed sign...

Fort Wayne Mayor STILL Hasn't Provided Harrison Square Documents

For over a week the citizens of this city have demanded that the inputs to the city's Harrison Square economic impact study be released. As of now, the city has not provided these documents. Let me remind the readers that Deputy Mayor Mark Becker assured several city council members that all requested documents would be made available to the public - that was on Tuesday.

Another blogger has reported that the city has a draft copy of this report and is trying to obtain a final and electronic version from the author. Let me offer up a couple of thoughts on his report:

1. Why the hell doesn't the city have a final version of the document they paid for?

2. If they don't have a final version then how do they know the inputs into their own economic impact study are legitimate?

3. If they do have a copy then why can't they figure out how to scan it and post it on the web - just give me a hard copy and I'll scan it and post it here.

4. The Harrison Square vote is likely going to take place Tuesday and we do not have that document as of COB Friday

This administration has already shown their contempt for the public's right to oversight when they suggested a preliminary vote on the project less than 24 hours after the memoranda of understanding were released. Once again, despite assuring the council otherwise, they are not forthcoming with the necessary documents.

The city council MUST stand up for the people of this city and postpone any vote until the mayor provides us with that information. The truth is the mayor's office doesn't give a damn what we want - they see us as obstructionists that will oppose the project whether they give us the documents or not. But that is not the point - they are REQUIRED BY LAW to provide us with those documents. And beyond that, they should remember that they only work in their current positions because the public allowed them to. They work to serve our interests.

Mayor Richard, it is with that final thought that I respectfully demand for you to give us all the documents we request - and expeditiously at that...

FOIA Update (Part 3) on Harrison Square Project

Cross-posted at Left of Centrist:

Previously (here and here) I have blogged about my FOIA request to the Fort Wayne city council and mayor Graham Richard's office. This request was to provide me with all communications between themselves and the Hardball Capital group before they purchased the Wizards and the city council responded by saying they had no such communication.

However, during one of the mayor's "Report to the People" meetings he told me that he had communicated with Hardball Capital prior to their purchase of the Wizards and he promised to provide me copies of all the relevant communications. The city attorney has since provided me with the requested documents and in my opinion, just as in the latest US Attorney General FOIA request, there appears to be some missing communications. I would like the readers to provide their opinion as to whether or not they believe there is a missing piece of information. I've linked images of these documents and I've also provided a quick synopsis of each document below. Note that some of the images are upside down - I was simply too lazy to change them and re-upload but I'm sure the readers know how to rotate the images.

Cover Letter(2/22/07) - A brief paragraph from the city attorney stating what they have provided

Mayor Richard Schedule Entry (11/11/05) - An entry from the mayor's electronic schedule stating that he had a meeting w/ perspective new Wizards' buyers (Hardball Capital)

Mayor's Post-Meeting E-mail to Jason Freier of Hardball Capital (11/12/05) - A quick thank you for their interest and the mayor tells them that Gregg Leatherman will be their point of contact for future data and meeting scheduling

Hardball Capital E-mail to Gregg Leatherman (11/20/05) - Freier states that HC is looking for info in 3 categories - general info regarding the business climate in Fort Wayne, Blueprint Plus report including info about tax incentives, info about other significant projects such as the Grand Wayne Center.

Mayor's E-mail to Jason Freier of Hardball Capital (1/16/06) - Mayor states that he'd like to join the media conference regarding the purchase of the team. Then the last sentence states - "I will be in touch soon about the other issues".

Jason Freier E-mail to Mayor Richard (2/10/06) - Discussion about scheduling a press conference so all the necessary people can be present

John Perlich E-mail to Jason Freier (2/13/06) - Provides Hardball Capital w/ the contact info for the various media outlets

John Perlich E-mail to Jason Freier (2/17/06) - More contact info

Now let's go back to the 1/16/06 e-mail from the mayor to HC; the problem is we have no idea what these "other issues" are. There are no communications for almost 2 months and there is nothing after this e-mail to suggest what the "other issues" were. This could be no big deal but when reading these e-mails this glaring gap (in time as well as information) sticks out like a sore thumb.

I will be sending a request to the city attorney tomorrow to provide any relevant information they might have in regards to these apparent missing communications.