[Vision2020] Accessible City Records?

[bear at moscow.com]

Visionaries,

At the same time our city council approved $5,000 ( $2,500 x two) to have two of the city 
councilors hire private legal counsel in regards to possible violations of the Idaho
Public 
Records Law (Idaho Code §§ 9-337 through 9-350), but then goes on to pass a resolution to 
charge for the time involved, if it exceeds 2 hours, which I should point out is all laid
out in the 
Idaho statute, and has been there since 1990.

Now, they have opened up a Pandora's Box because also in the statute also provides:The
public 
agency or independent public body corporate and politic may not charge any cost or fee for

copies or labor when the requester demonstrates either:
         (i)   The inability to pay; or
         (ii)  That the public's interest or the public's understanding of the
         operations or activities of government or its records would suffer by
         the assessment or collection of any fee.

I didn't see that mentioned in the ordnance passed last night. Nor did I see what a
requester 
has to do to prove they have an inability to pay, or that the requested information is in
the 
public's interest.

Now, I have done some digging around on what suddenly caused the city council to feel it 
needed to charge for a service, that until now has not been charged for, suddenly, a law
that 
has been on the books for 19 YEARS.There is a presumption that all records maintained by 
public agencies are open to the public for inspection and copying at all reasonable times,

unless the information is specifically exempted from disclosure by law. Could it have
anything 
to do with requests for information in regards to selling water across state lines and the

possible violations of the Open Records Laws? Some sites I've read that would lead a 
reasonable person to that conclusion are listed here:

http://groups.google.com/group/Latah_County_Water_Resources_Problems/web/915-the-saga-
of-extracting-public-records-from-the-city-of-moscow
 
http://groups.google.com/group/Latah_County_Water_Resources_Problems/web/950-lies-lies-
and-lies-a-bizarre-story-of-obsession-and-mendacity
 
http://groups.google.com/group/Latah_County_Water_Resources_Problems
 

I'm going to step up to the plate and say I have no idea why, but it doesn't pass the duck
test 
as far as honesty, open government  and ethics are concerned. If it swims like a duck,
quacks 
like a duck, and looks like a duck, CHANCES ARE IT'S A DUCK! I don't care one way or the
other 
about the water issue, but I care dearly about open government!





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