State wants $1,700 for look at public records
MONTPELIER, Vt.—The Douglas administration is demanding $1,700 from the Vermont State Employees' Association if the union wants to look at public records related to the 400 state job cuts Gov. Jim Douglas has ordered.
"The time (and associated cost) are high because the request will require review of many thousands of e-mail messages to or from the named individuals" -- named in the union's request for access to the documents, wrote Harold Scwartz, administrative services director at the Department of Human Resources.
The union, which had sought e-mails and other internal documents related to the cuts dating back to last fall, called the charge exorbitant.
"The fact is, the public has a vested interest in knowing what government services and operations are impacted by the governor's position reduction’ initiativebut the public should not be required to pay to examine internal correspondence about those effects," VSEA Interim Director Michael Casey said in an e-mail.
Administration officials referred questions to Linda McIntire, deputy secretary of administration, whose agency includes the Department of Human Resources. She said the department and agency want to be responsive to the union's request, but found the costs in staff time to reply to the VSEA request would be high.
She pointed to a provision in Vermont law that allows a government agency targeted by a public records request to charge for the time it takes to respond to the request.
McIntire said responding to the request had fallen to Molly Paulger, the Human Resources official who has been coordinating the administration's plan to trim open positions from government agencies without resorting to layoffs.
"She has to look at them (the e-mails being sought) very carefully" to avoid releasing confidential information that might be related to disciplinary proceedings against an employee or other sensitive personnel issues, McIntire said.
She acknowledged that the state could do a better job separating out or flagging records containing such confidential information, to save public records seekers the expense for that sorting at the time of a request.
"We shouldn't be charging somebody for something that (would be available) if we could be organizing our files better," McIntire said.
This isn't the first time that those seeking public records have been rebuffed by a big bill.
When the Washington-based group Judicial Watch wanted to see the gubernatorial papers of then-Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, the office of Attorney General William Sorrell said it would charge $168,750 just for an index of them.
The latest case of billing for access brought protests from two candidates seeking to unseat Douglas.
"Imposing this excessive charge is not in the spirit of our public access laws, and the governor should direct his managers to waive the fee," said a statement from the campaign of House Speaker Gaye Symington, the Democratic candidate.
Independent candidate Anthony Pollina said in a statement, "Workers should not have to pay to look at documents about their jobs. The administration should put the politics aside, do the right thing and share the information with state workers and all Vermonters."
