Published: March 17, 2007 01:58 pm      

Shining light on local government

Walk in to any sheriff’s department, police station or jail in the Tri-County and you ought to be able to come away with a list of arrests.

No questions asked.

But it doesn’t exactly work that way, as the Times-Tribune recently discovered.

Last week, the newspaper sent out a handful of “secret” auditors to government agencies across the Tri-County. Without saying immediately the information was for the newspaper, our auditors asked for a list of standard items that should have been no problem to receive.

From the schools, we asked for a copy of the superintendent’s contract (including salary) and a copy of the district’s overall budget.

From city governments, we asked for the minutes from the regular February city council meeting and a copy of the city manager’s contract and salary (if available.)

From county governments, we requested the minutes from the fiscal court’s February meeting and the most recent personal property taxes paid by the judge-executive.

From law enforcement, we asked to view police incident reports or initial offense reports from the past 24 hours.

These are very basic — although maybe odd — requests which should have been granted immediately.

Anyone — doesn’t matter who, doesn’t matter why — can view these documents, and many more.

You can compare what your child’s teacher and your child’s coach earn.

You can find out who was arrested and why.

You can get copies of 911 calls, police brutality reports, restaurant inspections and school test scores, just to name a few things.

The Freedom of Information Act applies to all levels of government agencies, as well as agencies that receive at least 25 percent of their funds from state or local authorities.

However, our auditors found that compliance with the law varies widely from different agencies.

Laurel County officials, for example, wouldn’t release what Judge-Executive Lawrence Kuhl paid in property taxes, while Whitley County officials produced the documents and even helped auditors who didn’t realize Judge-Executive Pat White’s taxes were actually under the first name “Paschal.”

(If you’re wondering, you can find out what anyone has paid in property taxes, not just public officials.)

Law enforcement seemed to have the biggest aversion to releasing public records — likely under the misperception that open records laws did not apply to them.

Corbin Police told our auditor they only gave out incident reports if a court order was produced — but the information was given over readily in Whitley County. Knox County and Laurel County officials wanted to know why our auditors wanted the information — a question they are not allowed to ask under the FOI law.

But we didn’t conduct this audit just to point fingers.

We did this because every day, regular people are being told — probably by a government employee that doesn’t know any better — that they can’t see what their government is doing.

And it’s a lie.

If you are denied records which you believe should be public, request a free opinion from the state attorney general, or, if you feel like paying for court costs, take it to circuit court. If you have just a general question about open records, call us here at the newspaper — we’ll be glad to help.

Our tax dollars fund these agencies, and we have a right to know exactly how our money is being spent. We are the bosses. We are entitled.

When governments realize the public isn’t watching, taxpayers get corruption, nepotism, and a generally poor use of their monies.

Do you want decisions about your community made behind closed doors?

Then let them know the boss — the public — is watching.

Send them requests. Ask them questions.

A good boss always knows what his employees are up to.