TheJestor

How do you feel about the FOIA requester that just 'fishing' for information?

I work for a small municipality, and am elected (was over FOIA, now over Public Works) in another small municipality close by, surrounded by a larger municipality...

Smaller communities do not have the manpower to dedicate to those who are merely fishing for information, and looking to cause trouble, and who are the loudest screamers of the protocol not working...

Most honest requests seem to understand, yet the 'fishers' seem to be clogging up the works, and making things tougher for everyone...

I agree with the openness of government, but, some people are just looking for human mistakes, and then screaming corruption....

Im not trained in government work, I may misspeak, or screw something up, but never intentionally...

Yet, every mistake is scrutinized until SOMEONE is hung for a mistake...

Let me also say, I love the accountability, I think it should be the case...

but, if people thought the wheels of government moved slow before, WHEW!!

lol

Recently, the larger municipality (not mine) had a little 'scandal', and as an insider, I could see that a mistake was made, and then another mistake, to correct the first mistake...

Then there ended up being many, lol...

And, when our local 'fisherman' got a bite, it turned into this great big ordeal, that I found almost circus-esqe... And, the news didnt help when it broke, as then they wanted to give it a catchy name, and allude to "was it accidental or not?"... Obviously, the first correction was not unintentional, but, when you try to fix an error, you are trying to fix it, not hiding it, yet, it brings peoples credibility and honesty into question...

Openness should prevail, I will not disagree...

And, I dont have an answer, all we can do is move forward, and try to make things better...

I dont thnk the governement is being 'sceretive', although I understand that appearance, sometimes, work just has to get done, and you cnat keep worrying about being seconded guessed later...

Its why 'monday morning quarterback' is a thing, lol..

I want to repeat in this thread, I agree with the government being more open, and I dont have an answer, as you are FOIA Activists, I am just curious...:)

If the mistake (I think it was, but I am not sure) is caught 5 minutes later, and adjusted, but still not quite fixed, then what?

It looks shady no matter how it happens...

And, as time goes by, and other things pile on it, it begins to get the 'buried' look...

The only answer I see, is daily logs to report on the days activities... And that will create some work, lol...