When
I filed to have my Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) fees waived, I knew
that this request would be denied; not because it wasn’t right but
because it would set a precedent. The reaction from the Councilors
was what I was really interested in seeing. The majority of the
Councilors was seriously concerned about the problem but did not want
to set a precedent and I do not blame them. Had I been in their
shoes, I too would have voted to deny the waiver.
Even
today, I doubt that anyone understand what really created this
situation. You see, Maine law states that the people have a valid
right to submit, as many Freedom of Access Acts (FOAA) as necessary,
to understand how the government is spending our tax dollars; whether
it is local, state or federal. The term used is “Transparency in
Government”. The Town Attorney, Roger Therriault, stated in his
legal opinion, “…the imposition of costs is the only control that
the Town has where request for voluminous and require significant
staff time and effort.”
This
legal opinion is false and undermines the law. The correct and
proper way to control Freedom of Access Acts (FOAA) is for government
to ensure that all the facts are presented to the people. This is
called transparency. There would never be a need for anyone to
submit a FOAA if all the facts were present. The only need for a
FOAA is to fill in missing information or as Mrs. Barry stated any of
the 5 “W” is missing. The five “W” are:
Who’s
involved and what are their responsibilities?
What’s
going too happened?
When
is it going to happen?
Where
is it going to take place?
Why
is it going to take place?
How
much is it going to cost each party involved?
As
you can see, I added a “How” because the taxpayers need to know
how much the project is going to cost them.
During
Ryan Leighton’s presentation, he only provided a one page
memorandum. The council was told this was a UNITIL project but there
was no UNITIL proposal and no representative to brief it. When I
submitted a FOAA to answer the above cited questions, I was told
there were over 200 pages pertaining to this project.
My
father use to tell me “The spoken word is like the wind,
everywhere, but the written word is here to stay.” This to me is
solid advice.
Larry
Fillmore
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