WFAE's Julie Rose is really good at what she does and her story "Assessing Access To Public Records In NC" which aired Monday was no exception.
Her news story points out that getting the City of Charlotte, Police Department and City Attorney's office to respond to FOIA requests is a tiring and often frustrating experience. And while CMPD and the City of Charlotte is required to provide requested information they really have no reason to be expeditious.
But buried in the last 100 words is this amazing quote from CDIA Direction Jerry Orr, regarding his lack of use of emails.
"Cause once you hit that key, it's there," says Jerry Orr, Charlotte Aviation
Director. He says he uses email, but sparingly. "You want to say as little as
possible. In case you change your mind, you have that much less to deny."
"Much less to deny" which is pretty much what we saw with the Tisdale death and security issues, denial after denial. Notice Orr didn't say "explain" he said "deny", amazing.
Cedar Posts Foot Note: My apologies to Julie Rose for not answering her email last week. For the record Cedar Posts doesn't make FOIA requests, instead CP relies on CMPD and City/County insiders to provide information and documents regarding wrong doing, corruption and excessive spending.
9 comments:
There is lots of good information in the story, but the ridiculous and inaccurate inflections read into the story are biased and wrong. I would expect better from WFAE. They should be reporting the FACTS. Pull these emails yourself and see there was no “barrage of emails accusing the city of hiding something.” Rose also says “A CMPD attorney initially tries answering the accusations.” Read the emails.
There was only request for some emails, which CMPD denied and delayed, insisting on having to ask over and over again. Then “CMPD Attorney Mark Newbold says the department doesn't have the resources for that kind of back and forth.” CMPD is the one who generates the “back and forth.” If they would fill the requests which is legal, there would be no ‘back and forth.’ He even says, “On the other hand, we do have an obligation (to provide public records). We recognize that obligation.” So why haven’t they done it almost a year later?
Rose made a false statement: Brown is not interested in narrowing his request. Read Brown’s emails. There were many tries to ask a question of CMPD for basic information to reduce the request significantly, but the attorneys sent back crazy responses that they don’t store information in “any particular” way, making it impossible to reduce….
The characterization of the participation of CMPD vs. the request is not accurate and should be corrected by WFAE and Rose.
They should have pointed out the fines of $50 per day per employee that can be assessed for those breaking the law.
Also, NCGS 132.9 provides attorneys’ fees for those who need to sue to get records when they have been illegally denied like this. Mr. Brown should consider as well as others I know about.
Another bigger issue: WHY IS THE CMPD AND CITY TRYING SO HARD to avoid releasing records…
Cedar got it. Orr said it. Less to deny.
Hey 10:19 maybe you should ease up on the Bath Salts?
6:45 must be one of the CMPD attorneys or cunningham or tufano
try to same something intelligent
cunningham and newbold must be adding up $50 x every day since they started working!!
Orr is an idiot, every time he opens his mouth just confirms it.
And CMPD under Rodney is about as transparent as mud.
They do not what few actual records they must keep to see the light of day.
Thy have not just bent the 'rules"' but broken them, snapped them right off.
No one knows what the SOP's and Directives are any more, they change on Rodney's whim.....whatever suits him on any given day, or helps him cover up whatever mess he has gotten into.
And they and the CMPD Attorneys will drag their feet on every single request until you give up or Rodney leaves.
So, Newbold admits in another public forum that he and they broke the law, and nobody in the DA's office is going to pick this up?
ANDREW MURRAY, LISA BELL, ROY COOPER, BEV PURDUE: Does anyone remember what ethics means?
Prosecution?
Speaking of hiding the truth has anyone looked into the comments below that were entered on a previous post:
Have any CMPD officers actually seen the new pay raises that have been presented to city counsel? Please, someone correct me if I am wrong, but the brass (Lt. and above, white shirts) are getting a 3% pay raise and Sgts. and below (worker bees) are getting a 1.5% raise. Let me do the math. 3% of $100k is $3000. 1.5% of $50k is $750. If I am correct, officers should be outraged.
How is it possible the FOP hasn't fully informed every officer the answer to your question, 8:22?
How is it possible monroe hasn't? walton? your supervisors?
We know the answer, but it's worth saying. And outraged it a good way to put it. Sorry for the real answer.
Time to start speaking up about everything, from pay to to the rest. If you keep letting them skate, you get what you get.
WILL PAY $10 for each confession of false crime report entered to fudge crime stats. That should bring up your pay to match supervisors.
Think about what you're doing
Post a Comment