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Saturday, July 11, 2015

Public Information Scandal in QA County

"What are they trying to hide?" Public officials Jim Moran, Gregg Todd demand $900.00 from woman asking to read public emails.

Shocked at Commissioner Moran's plan to compromise the safety of Kent Island's children by building a large homeless shelter near four schools, park and trail, Kent Island resident Jean Keister asked to see recent emails between Moran, County Administrator Gregg Todd, and the following: Governor Hogan, DHCD Secretary Holt, QAC Housing Director Mike Clark, and Haven Ministries director Krista Pettit. (Under the law, emails of public officials are public record.)

After being asked to remit $900.00, "My first thought was: what are they trying to hide?" Keister told SOS. "How can any private citizen be expected to pay such an outrageous fee? That's almost as much as my mortgage!" The following are excerpts from her correspondence with the county:

County: "... it will be $900 – ($150/hr for 6 hours...)"

Mrs. Keister: "The law allows only for reasonable fees. $900...is clearly an unreasonable amount for easily searchable, recent emails..."

Gregg Todd: (quoting contractor) “It’s an extreme oversimplification to say we’re just simply searching two mailboxes; we’re having to develop at least 10 to 15 search strings per mailbox...running them, vetting out false positives, and packaging a deliverable.”

Mrs. Keister: "I would be happy to save the county money by searching through emails myself...simplifying my request to include ALL emails sent and received by Jim Moran and Gregg Todd during the (time) period....it will illustrate the commission's commitment to public information..."

Gregg Todd: "...this falls substantially outside of your request for shelter related emails and is not only impractical...but would also require county time and money to search through these emails to find ones that are exempt..."
--

"Because of Commissioner Moran's refusal to engage with the community with regard to this project," Keister added, "I do not believe a word that comes out of his mouth."

The Maryland Board of Public Works - Governor Hogan, Comptroller Franchot and Treasurer Kopp - are set to vote on the $3 million federal and state-funded regional homeless shelter next Thursday, July 16.

— with Brian Frosh.

1 comment:

lmclain said...

Think they believe they answer to anyone?
Still believe they "represent" anyone except themselves and the ones who bribe them?
Think YOU still have a voice in anything they do?
They weren't even careful enough to exclude the talk about payoffs, kickbacks, and "deals" from their public e-mail. That's how brazen these losers and thieves are --- even if someone finds them, what are they going to do about it???
Write a mean letter to the editor?
They didn't even try the Hillary ploy -- I deleted the emails, even thought it was against the law, and now, "there's no evidence of any crime."
Not that she's any smarter than them, she's just a more practiced liar, cheat, lawbreaker and power-crazy old woman.
Keep cheering (they'll continue laughing at your stupidity).