Open letter to Moyie
Springs officials
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September 13, 2011 |
An Open Letter to the City Clerk of
Moyie Springs;
Recently, you initially denied my request for
public records.
The request was made by email.
This is provided for in the new public records
law H0328: IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES HOUSE
BILL NO. 328 BY WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE...”TO
PROVIDE THAT REQUESTS FOR PUBLIC RECORDS AND
DELIVERY OF PUBLIC RECORDS MAY BE MADE BY
ELECTRONIC MAIL.”
The request contained all the information
required by the city.
Your stated reason for denial of the requested
records was “I can’t send you the records
without a signed request form.”
The form was signed. Idaho law allows for
electronic signatures. The form that was
provided to me merely states “Person Requesting
Records.”
If you want a printed, paper copy you merely
needed to print out the request. If you want
your copy to be on a 8.5 x 14 (legal size) you
merely need to print it on that size.
Ironically, your refusal to my request was sent
by email.
Not an “official” form, not “signed.”
According to Idaho law, “The written denial for
all or part of a request for information must
state the statutory authority (emphasis added)
for the denial, and include a clear statement of
the right to appeal and the time for doing so.”
Found in Office of the Attorney General, Idaho
Public Records Law Manual.
If the city has an ordinance or law requiring
only forms certified and approved by the city be
used, then provide taxpayers the same fillable
forms electronically online. |
Rosanne Smith
Moyie Springs, Idaho |
Editor's note: Roseanne Smith
challenged this journal to obtain Moyie Springs
City Council minutes and other public documents,
and I did place a call to city clerk Sandy
Tompkins requesting them; offering to assist the
town inform its citizens. I was advised that she
would confer with the city council to determine
whether she was allowed to send me those
documents or whether, as any citizen, I would
have to travel to her office to formally request
them.
I never followed up.
In the meantime, Moyie Springs City Council
minutes began coming my way, and were duly
published, verbatim. Roseanne's letter, above,
shows why those minutes stopped.
As a result, the City of Moyie Springs is going
to be faced with a challenge; provide this
journal with all minutes, legal notices and
other information deemed public by Idaho
statute, in form that will facilitate the
publication of those documents and not subject
to the convenience of the clerk, the mayor or
the council, or face stern chastisement from the
Idaho Attorney General.
It is my understanding that at the meeting
following my request, the city's legal counsel
advised Sandy and the council that it would be
in their best interest to abide the requests of
media, but concerns were raised that the media
might give a wrong "spin" and that advice was
ignored, perhaps with the idea that nothing that
happens in Moyie leaves Moyie ... or doesn't
matter.
I wasn't there, but if that's what was said, my
journalistic interest is piqued ... is there
something being hidden?
By statute, the purpose of the Idaho Open
Meeting Law and those requirements for legal
publication is to inform the public. That
statute requires publication of all important
information concerning a municipality or county
government to publish, in the newspaper of
record, legal notice. For that, they are
required to pay that journal rates established
by law in exchange of a guarantee of
publication.
That law goes on to say that, in addition to
legal publication, municipalities and county
governments should do all they can to to inform
its citizenry, and recommends making public
information know by all means available. The
city doesn't pay for press releases, but it
costs, at most a postage stamp to send it. I
don't even need that; my media is electronic,
and it doesn't cost the city anything.
It's not "fun" publishing Bonners Ferry or
Boundary County notices or minutes; I can't get
a "scoop" because they always beat me to it by
publishing first on their own website ... a
tactic, I add, that helps keep us journalists
honest. I can't find the government of Moyie
Springs on line, however.
I don't think the mayor, the city council or the
city clerk of the municipality of Moyie Springs
are trying to hide anything ... but I might be
wrong.
I don't have the time or resources to go look
for myself and they're denying me convenient
access to information to which I'm not only
entitled, but which they should be grateful that
I'm offering to share, at no cost to the
taxpayer, with their constituents.
What makes my interest even more critical is the
treatment the City of Moyie Springs inflicted on
Roseanne Smith. Before Moyie Springs minutes
began appearing on these pages, the documents
she requested were handed her with a grump and a
forced smile.
Now she has to fill out forms?
Wake up, leaders of Moyie Springs ... listen to
your counsel and your constituents. Even if you
have nothing to hide, those actions make it look
like you do. Despite what you might read in the
tabloids, journalists aren't out to "get" anyone
unless they deserve to be got.
99.9% of the time, an open media policy will
help you do the job you do, not hinder.
Instead of hiding your light under a basket, you
should be grateful that there's an honest local
media to shine a light on what you do, and you
should use it to your every advantage. |
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