[Publib] Re: Urbanity

[Robert Balliot]

Yes, but an unlawful termination suit is not for the faint of heart.  It
takes years to go through
the process in court.   And,
litigating<http://www.projo.com/ri/middletown/content/EB_MIDDLETOWN_COUNCIL_15_07-15-08_M7AS692_v7.4120e85.html>with
public employers is ugly - the only people who end
up paying are the taxpayers - the same people who ask for public records.
At the State level,
you could expect about three years before you get on the docket.
If Federal, about a year -
but it would have to fall within a fairly restrictive / narrowly
interpreted whistle-blower ideal.

By definition, public records are public. If you are the keeper of public
records <http://oceanstatelibrarian.com/oxford_presentation.htm> and
required
to provide them, you must.  There are great laws on the books created with
the intent of making
government transparent.  But, there will always be powerful interest groups
intent on keeping
people in the dark.

I knew a family being affected by spot zoning that tried for two years to
locate the meetings.
The meetings would occur with no notification, so they simply could not
attend.  In one of
the local Towns, the backroom deals on tax assessment were completely out of
control. A
couple tried to work with the process to no avail.  They documented about
100 trangressions
of statutes and procedures.  After a massive amount of press the AG stepped
in and fined
the Town $1500<http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20050728_bnopen28.184927aa.html>.
 The couple each had law and accounting degrees.  Regular people with
less education would have given up.

We have quite a few problems with the legal system here. Most of it, I
think, is because
the State is so small.  When organized
crime<http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIR_enUS214US214&q=organized+crime+providence>settled
into Providence sixty years ago, it
helped that the State was small and lacking power.  They were able to exact
quite a bit
of influence over government at that time. I think the influence has
lessened, but there seems
to be a culture of expectations to go along to get along - or get your knees
broken.

We also have no district attorneys - which I think would create a certain
level of competitiveness in law enforcement.  Almost all prosecution for
government crime
goes through the Feds <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Dollar_Bill>using
RICO <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RICO>.  I think if we had county
government and district attorneys
the legal climate would change and laws might be enforced with less
politics.

Every time we do seem to make some progress with Open Meetings and Access to
Public Records, we seem to take two steps
back<http://www.eastbayri.com/detail/129298.html>
.

R. Balliot
http://oceanstatelibrarian.com





On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 7:20 PM, Cheryl <mightb.me at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>>  A board member comes in to  tell you could lose your  job, or worse for
>> providing  access to public records. (and you do!)
>>
>>
> Question: wouldn't this be good grounds for an unlawful termination suit?
> (assuming there is no written policy about not providing access to said
> records?)
>  Cheryl Coovert
> Lexington KY
>
> --
>
>
>
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