Those who live in glass houses should not cast stones. The mayor should take this to heart every time he is demanding action and records from another authority. Fred on WSPD is waiting for some basic information on the repair status of garbage trucks, something which should be easy to get, I asked a few simple questions and have only received one canned response, and now Councilman D. Michael Collins is also wondering what the status of his open record request is, also something basic as the profit and loss statements from the Erie Street Market. Lisa Renee of Glass City Jungle posted the very interesting letter at: http://glasscityjungle.com/wordpress/?p=3402.
Councilman Collins mentions:
The specific records I requested consisted of a balance sheet and a profit and loss statement. These records, as part of a normal business practice, should have been available within 24 hours. The crux of my concern is your position, as it relates to documents in which YOU requested, (and now protest), and the fact that you have not received them.
The Mayor needs to be careful, because the list of those waiting for simple public information requests on the City appears to be growing larger each day, and there is nothing but silence from the City yet the Mayor is acting like the port is hiding information and not being responsive. It appears the rocks have already been cast, and we are just waiting to see how much damage, all the while the local economy is in the tank and no one really doing anything but the same old to fix it.
So what happens when you have to sue each and every time for a records-request compliance? It's not like Czarty and the Czouncil are spending their own money on lawyers, anyway. This could be a massive roadblock, or a massive expense, and either way -- WE LOSE.
Mr. Collins is right to recognize what appears to be the city’s view that “some are more equal than others” when it comes to the government handing over requested documents.
The city’s perception is that the Port Authority is stone-walling. Maybe and maybe not.
Here’s what I want to know: if the people employed by the city think it’s wrong when something is being done to the city, then why do those people who run the city (which includes the mayor) do the same thing to others?
How many times has this administration and some of the elected officials dragged something out to the last minute while racking up a huge debt and sending the bill to the taxpayers in the form of all kinds of fines, fees, and taxes, reduced essential services, city operated businesses which are unprofitable and not the role of government?
Why can’t the city be consistent in applying the principle of “whatever it is you expect others to do, then you should do the same.”?
Does anyone else think that if the city’s investigators show up at 1:00pm on Monday that they might be refused either entry to the building or access to the documents until the city has been granted the authority to do so by a court?
So a mandamus is going to be filed in the near future. Why the letter to Mr. Carroll? Why not just file it and go from there? Why is the city trying to make such a public spectacle of this situation unless it is to send some kind of message to whoever hears what’s going on?
The city goes to the trouble of hand delivering a letter of its intent without being certain of the outcome it is seeking. Isn’t this presumption on the part of the city law dept.? Isn’t a mandumus only issued at the discretion of the court in the jurisdiction where this mandumus will be made? Doesn’t that court have to determine whether the city has a ‘useful and just purpose’ for a mandumus being issued?
What if the city is fails to be granted a mandumus? Then what? How much weight would the letter have then? Was the city right to hand deliver a “if-you- don’t-do-this-we-will-do-this kind of letter?
*yes, this has been cross-posted at GCJ
Toledo's greatest problem in moving forward is it's people. The facts mentioned above have been going on for years, but the people of the city are either too uncaring or ignorant to do anything about it.
Voter turnout is abysmal, and when the majority of people cast their votes, it's for the same regime year in and year out. People in this city know that things are tough here, bu t are too lazy to educate themselves about the causality of most of the problems - they just obtusely go along with what they're fed by their local union rep.
When Carty/Council/comissioners pull their crap, very few people are there to hold them to the fire, and those that do are castigated for doing so - not because the words they say are incorrect, but because of their political philosophies.
Come on you imbeciles!! Just because someone with the wrong letter behind their name supplies some figures and sites the references of where they got them, it's no excuse to ignore what they say. Facts are facts! The train's running down the track straight at us, but the break lever is right in front of us - first step is to put our hand on it... Then we need to pull on it.... Then really lean the hell down on it....
with Toledo's politics is like getting a virus you can't shake.
If the City of Toledo is above board in its operations then there should/would be no reason to stall on providing the information to the citizenry.
If there are portions of a request that are LEGALLY protected then the person requesting the info under the FOIA should receive a notice of that protection and the applicable portion of the TMC/ORC that supports the denial. If the response to the request contains sensitive information (Names of minors involved, social security #s, etc) then that portion of the response can be redacted.
It's simple. But Toledo, in all its back-room deals and shady behavior, only serves to continue to violate the law. And we, the taxpayers, continue to get stuck with legal bills to cover their arses.