Nearly three weeks ago I requested, pursuant to Indiana's Open Records law, the transition contract supposedly signed by Mayor-Elect Greg Ballard with Barnes & Thornburg.
Going on three weeks later, the contract has still not been provided.
How long does it take to locate and copy a contract? Fifteen minutes, tops? Every day that goes by without the contract being produced makes me believe that the rumors are true, namely that, after the election, then Mayor-elect Greg Ballard signed a contract giving exclusive authority to Barnes & Thornburg to run his transition and to set up the Mayor's Office. Several Republicans reported to me that Ballard told them that he signed such a contract and the Mayor-elect told them he could not interfere with what was going on in the transition. As a result of how the transition was run and the subsequent administration was set up, many Ballard supporters were left out in the cold.
It's a simple thing. Either the contract exists or it does not. If it exists, then it needs to be produced. People have the right to know what deals were cut in setting up the Mayor's Office.
8 comments:
Sadly, this is reminiscent of trying to get a copy of Peterson's budget with all the missing pages.
I get nervous when government holds public information close to their pockets. Ballard only has what 7 days to respond? Did he even do that?
Leslie Sourwine
Give it up. You'll never get it, and the America-hater, Heather Neal, will pollute the record so badly that you'll get no redress in court.
America sucks. Move to France.
Leslie,
I got a response saying they were thinking about providing the documents. You see, that's one of the holes in the Open Records Law. All they have to do is acknowldge the request within the time frame provided by law.
Ballard and Scott Newman are crooks!
Dear Paul,
Have you ever made a public records request before? According to law, the city has seven days to acknowledge receipt of your request. I'll go out on a limb here and guess that they have fulfilled their duty there (otherwise you'd really be screaming!). They now have a "reasonable" amount of time to respond to your request which is not defined by law.
Undoubtedly, they are seeking a legal opinion to see whether the agreement in question is even eligible to be FOIAed. As an ex-bureaucrat government lawyer yourself, surely you of all people should understand how long it takes to get such an opinion...
Bottom line, if you want to keep your blog credible, tell the real story. Two weeks is not a reasonable amount of time to expect a response. Especially when you expect them to be hard at work fixing all the other things you are complaining about...
Cut the spin Paul. It makes you look desperate.
Best,
HR
Paul
You may let the court decide what is reasonable. How long does it take to produce a contract? This is just more delay tactic while they make the necessary changes. A citizen doing that would have already been in the poky because Dr. Law would say the individual was destroying evidence.
Leslie Sourwine says put the real criminals behind bars, give taxpayers back their money.
Once they've given you that meaningless "response," America-hater Heather Neal will give them until the Second Coming to respond.
You'll go to court, and the defense will wave around Neal's highly favorable opinion that the elapsed period of non-response is "reasonable," and that will be all the judge needs to throw you out on your ear.
Politically, Indiana is somewhere between Massachusetts and Brezhnev's USSR.
It's a really goofy, highly authoritarian, anti-freedom place.
Be in front of your t.v. by 7, and do as your told.
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