Sunday, January 15, 2006

today's MUST READ article

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060115/OPINION01/601150320/1035/OPINION

regarding open records laws in iowa:

Perhaps the most citizen-friendly agency for records requests was the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which maintains a records center in the Wallace State Office Building in the Capitol complex. There, employees quickly produced all information requests made in 2004 and 2005, including worker e-mails that were stored within the DNR's easily accessible files.

Within days of the Register's request for open-records information, the Iowa Department of Human Services - the state's largest agency, with 5,300 workers- managed to produce for free hundreds of formal and informal requests for information from human-service organizations, legislators and reporters.
well, DUH. DHS is full of democrats.

Conversely, the Department of Transportation, responded to the Register's request with a seven-page letter, outlining the considerable time and expense associated with finding and retrieving requests for public information within the huge agency, which has offices around the state.

Narrowing the scope of the search was of little help: Spokeswoman Dena Gray-Fisher estimated it would take 73 hours just to find written requests for information within her relatively small office, which employs 26 people, including the director. The estimated price tag to view those records: $1,460.
not surprising there. DOT is repuke land.

get my drift?

No comments: