Does anyone think we will get the answers from City Hall? Will they want to charge me an exorbitant amount of money to research it? They have 30 days to come up with the answers from 8/16/19.
Wayne King
Candidate for Mayor of Salisbury, MD
Wayne King
Candidate for Mayor of Salisbury, MD
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Sent: Fri, Aug 16, 2019 at 9:51 AM
Subject: Your MPIA Request
Mr. King,
Good morning. We are in receipt of your request for:
2018 Folk Festival: What was the operational budget for the festival (line by line and abstract). Including budgeted items and actual numbers or costs (line by line). This should include costs of bands, police security, porta potties, construction, etc...
How much was the grant money that was received and who supplied the grant with contact information. How much money did the city have to spend to match grant. How much overall did the festival cost the city. How many people attended the festival - broken down day by day and grand total. Who was the organizer of the festival and how much was that person paid. Also, the cost to pay employees and their names that helped run the festival (line by line). How much (in dollars) did the city benefit from the festival (line by line and estimate of all businesses benefits). A copy of the contract between the City of Salisbury and the National Folk Festival; year by year (including costs/payment to the National Folk Festival for helping the city organize the festival). Also, line by line. In total and line by line, where did the city get the money for the Folk Festival. How much tax money was used for the Folk Festival.
Budgeted money for the 2019 folk festival and all donors (such as the county, company donors, personal donors etc...) All line by line.
How much was the grant money that was received and who supplied the grant with contact information. How much money did the city have to spend to match grant. How much overall did the festival cost the city. How many people attended the festival - broken down day by day and grand total. Who was the organizer of the festival and how much was that person paid. Also, the cost to pay employees and their names that helped run the festival (line by line). How much (in dollars) did the city benefit from the festival (line by line and estimate of all businesses benefits). A copy of the contract between the City of Salisbury and the National Folk Festival; year by year (including costs/payment to the National Folk Festival for helping the city organize the festival). Also, line by line. In total and line by line, where did the city get the money for the Folk Festival. How much tax money was used for the Folk Festival.
Budgeted money for the 2019 folk festival and all donors (such as the county, company donors, personal donors etc...) All line by line.
If we anticipate that any portion of your request may be denied for any reason, we will attempt to notify you within 10 days, as mandated by the Maryland Public Information Act.
Given the volume of information being requested, please be advised that it may take longer than 10 days for us to compile and provide a response. In such event, we will provide the response within the 30 days allowed by the Maryland Public Information Act.
Additionally, the Maryland Public Information Act stipulates the following:
“The custodian may charge a “reasonable fee” to search for, prepare, and reproduce a record in a customized format selected by the applicant, and may charge “the actual costs” of searching for, preparing, and producing a public record in standard format. GP § 4-206(b)(1). Fees may not be charged, however, for the first two hours of search and preparation time. GP § 4- 206(c).”
And:
“The actual cost of a response must be calculated by prorating the salaries of the staff and attorneys involved in the response by the actual time they spent searching for and preparing the record for disclosure. GP § 4-206(b)(2).”
Please be advised that, given the amount of information being requested, it is conceivable that your request will exceed the 2 free hours mandated by the Maryland Public Information Act. In such case, we will provide you with an estimate of the total charges, and request your permission to proceed.
Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Christopher M. Demone
Public Information Officer
City of Salisbury
125 N. Division St.
Salisbury, MD 21801
410-548-3100
34 comments:
Finally someone showing some backbone and integrity! Way to go Mr King
I believe the city will try to charge you a small fortune to try and keep this information from going public. Just one person's opinion.
So ridiculous ! The Gov. body can do
what ever the Hell they want to do as
they KNOW that the person requesting
won't pay this type of Bill, which they
shouldn't have to do anyway. "Their corrupted
A-- " is covered, top to bottom.
GRANTS Are Taxpayers Monies. If Jake Day
isn't gotten out of there , this town will
be ruined, If it hasn't been already.
well if they calculate the attendance like they did last year it wont be accurate ....they used phone pings for each person so potentially one person could be counted at multiple locations thereby expanding the numbers to look like more in attendance than there was
"Given the volume of information being requested"
really? how hard can it be to look up how much this piece of junk is going to cost us....unless they have no idea themselves....
considering this is an ongoing activity shouldn't all these items be currently tracked on some type of spreadsheet? at most one would think there would be time charged for the hourly employee to stand in front of a copier and make copies! day or two at most!
look for federal funds that were misspent!
Having worked for a local government to process FOIA requests, yes, this is a request that would take a lot of hours to fully answer.
It's odd, though, that the city hasn't consolidated all of the expenses into a single report to the city council. If there is one, it should be readily available via the city clerk.
Right on Wayne King,I knew there was a way to get this info and they could not put it off until Jake Day lost the upcoming election. This is what we have wanted for over a year. The pictures were so telling when you could see there were no crowds, there were no buses of people from the Civic Center carrying visitors to the Ampitheatre sight. The requests for help from city employees, the comments by vendors of how little $ they were making, vendors who stopped their entertainment due to poor attendance. Now we can see the bigger picture for us tax payers we will actually get figures, for last years and I pray this years event fast approaching. Wake up Jake the door is closing on you and your cronies. Thank you Wayne King!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Surely an event that happened a year ago has been examined and discussed at length about the costs etc to prepare for the upcoming event. The city will stall and come up with an outrageous price for this information and hope that no one will be able to pay for it. I agree with 858....haven’t these expenses been consolidated in some type of report for the council by now? If not, how have they prepared for the festival this week when they don’t even know what the last one cost. I have worked for a city government in another state in a larger city and they had to present the budget to the council before the event to have overtime approved for all of the city employees that were needed to work the event.
The council knows what this event cost last year......and if they don’t ....shame on them.
At least you didn’t get the usual response...”our department doesn’t handle that. You need to contact the blah blah blah department “
I am no expert here, but doesn't the local government getting these grants have to prepare this info anyhow? I mean surely they are required to report some information to receive future grants, right? It may not be down to the last porta-potty but there should be some level of detail for accountability. It should not take that long for them to submit this report an since this is required anyhow. It should not cost the person requesting it either, I would think???
The two hours should not be exceeded. This information should be on hand at all times, who the hell do they think they are kidding.
1. I wonder if they are prepared for a weekend of potential heavy rain that could come in from Dorian.
2. They're playing the folk festival live on WSCL. Won't that just mean that people will stay home and listen to it rather than going?
Let us know when you get the bill. Maybe we can kick in to help. They will redact the hell out of it, you know.
Dan said last night it will be perfect for the F... Fest NO RAIN IN SIGHT (as far as he could see)
They are telling us that Salisbury Government does not use updated computer systems. I can look up a lot of information on my computer in 2hrs. Are they that inefficient / disorganized that their personnel does not have a file labeled Folk Festival on the computer that contains all their information? That is absurd. This proves Salisbury has no organization, poor Supervisors, no check and balance system. Glad I don't live in Salisbury. Wish I could get my address changed to Fruitland since I live within 1 mile of Fruitland.
Jake will fudge the numbers just like he a Barbara do with the crime stats.
This bunch is very good at getting “free stuff” too. You should see the amount of money my office is spending on helping at the fest just to make my boss look good.
Who cares ,.....really?
THIS IS NOT RUDE
This is the 2nd PIA on did on the Festival. The first time I did an oral request and they sent me nonsense. So I called the city attorney. He told me to do it through the website because he monitors the PIAs. They have 30 days. If they come up with nonsense again the attorneys then get involved. I have another interesting PIA out there. Soon to be posted.... Stay tuned.
Will this report include all the over time pay given to city employees that helped? Doing things like planting flowers for over time pay I'm sure will never be accounted for.
This report should be documented and itemized on all expenses and in depth plans. If this has not been done then you have another coverup in favor of the "GOOD OLE BOYS". No Grants or other types of loans should be given, since there is no in depth planning and expense sheets. Where is a forensic audit?
I bet the city is looking forward to the rain this weekend, it will be a good excuse as to why the numbers suck this year too!
This logo for the festival is awfully similar to the Woodstock logo of 1969...
Coincidence I a sure...
Dorian may effect this crap
Screw Jake Day, the worthless P.O.S.!
Anonymous said...
This bunch is very good at getting “free stuff” too. You should see the amount of money my office is spending on helping at the fest just to make my boss look good.
September 3, 2019 at 11:22 AM
Just look at all the "free stuff" the Ghetto'Bury Far Department gets all the time. Hazmat truck, $1 Million Far Boat, 24 paid Farmin with the Federal grant. What other freebies are they getting for the Far Department?
Heck according to Dan's forecast it will be ok to hold it at the beach lol.
A little history on how the city ended up on this hook for this?
Does Ward Museum Executive Director Lora Bottinelli ring a bell?
Isn't it such a coincidence how she ended up with a job at the folk festival organization and we ended up on the hook with this thing for 3 years?
Look it up.
More dirty laundry for Smallsbury.
Enjoy the debt you are going to be in for a couple of years trying to pay it off.
Oh and by the way. Your streets look like sh!t. I drove down business 13 and this place looks like a ghetto.
Way to impress the 100K (ha ha ha) people coming here for your little festival.
This years budget isnt even online. Find it and prove me wrong. They are hiding because its an election year.
How would you ever know if they told you they didn't have the information you request
https://www.aclu-md.org/en/press-releases/judge-rejects-city-salisburys-attempt-dismiss-aclu-lawsuit
They lost this one trying to cover up a info request I cant wait to see the info I bet the aclu has it by now
For this to take any more then 1/2 hr much less more then 2 hrs shows just how incompetent the city of Salisbury is. If Salisbury had a competent mayor and council this info would have been already done and provided to them shortly after the close of the festival last year. That any resident thinks this is acceptable only shows the lack of intelligence on the residents of Salisbury Lack of intelligence isn't a shocker though. Just look at how the morons vote.
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