People often wonder why the typical public-records request is so convoluted and full of legalese -- instead of asking for "documents," a request generally will ask for something like: "All letters, memos, audiotapes, videotapes, transcripts, emails, calendar entries..." and so on until the thesaurus has been exhausted.The reason is that, if you don't nail down all of the possibilities, a sharp-eyed government lawyer may spot the one tiny omission in your request and respond with a denial that is ultra-literally true but substantively unhelpful (i.e., "Well, we have time sheets, but we don't have any time cards").To illustrate, consider the case of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, which was asked under Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law to produce the payroll records of a roofing company that was paid for repair work on a campus building.
Tag: Transparency Tuesday
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: What’s better than getting paid six figures to work? Getting paid six figures not to.
An intriguing debate is simmering in news-industry circles as to whether it's a legitimate journalistic function to publicly distribute a database of government employee salaries, or just an invitation to voyeurism.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: If it ‘looks like, smells like, walks like, and quacks like a duck’ — then FOIA it!
The nonprofit lobbying organizations that represent city councils, school boards and other governmental entities are undergoing significant, and much-needed, scrutiny by state legislatures and in the courts.The disclosure that the (since-removed) head of the Iowa Association of School Boards received an under-the-table raise boosting her annual pay to an eye-popping $367,000 -- three times what the governor of Iowa makes -- prompted Iowa legislators to patch a loophole in state law and require the IASB to make its records and meetings public just as the Association's member school boards must.Associations representing school boards, superintendents and principals wield enormous influence over policy-making at the state level, and are able to trade on their "quasi-public" goodwill when it suits their strategic purposes.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Department of Education focuses renewed attention on campus crime disclosure
Federal law requires all colleges to generate an annual public snapshot of serious crimes on their campuses, but many of the reported statistics appear implausibly small or are inconsistent with other agencies' data.The U.S.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Policing how schools fund extracurricular activities
Those nickel-and-dime fees for participating in the school band, lacrosse team or cheerleading squad are a frequent irritant to cash-strapped parents -- and it turns out, they may sometimes be illegal.The San Diego Union-Tribune has discovered that privately organized booster clubs in one local school district were exacting hundreds of dollars per student in mandatory participation fees for band, color guard and other after-school activities.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Try this at home – some creative uses of FOI laws that you can swipe
On Saturday, I had the pleasure of teaching a public-records workshop to a roomful of bright, eager reporters at the Society of Professional Journalists' Region 11 convention.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: The sometimes-distasteful truth about cafeteria food
Sometimes public-records searches turn up back-room insider deals, kickbacks, golden parachutes and rigged contracts.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Top dogs, top paychecks — presidential pay and perks can raise eyebrows, questions
Year in and year out, some of the best money that a college newsroom can invest is in a subscription to The Chronicle of Higher Education, which – along with its comparably excellent (and online-only) competitor Inside Higher Ed – is a factory cranking out steal-able story ideas.The Chronicle is out with its annual survey of the compensation packages of presidents at America’s 185 largest public universities covering 2009-10, and as always, the compilation is fascinating reading (and provides multiple opportunities for follow-up and localization).Note that the term is “compensation” and not “salary” for a reason.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: No campus crime should go uncounted
Hundreds of angry students at Dickinson College recently marched on the administration building to demand greater public disclosure of sexual assaults at the 2,300-student private institution near Harrisburg, Pa.The students obtained some concessions -- their administrators agreed to more readily activate the campus-wide alert system upon learning of sex crimes -- and they also spotlighted what Pennsylvania's Patriot-News called the "top-secret justice system" that enables colleges to minimize public disclosure of campus offenses, even violent ones.In an extensive investigation published last year, the Center for Public Integrity analyzed the annual crime statistics filed with the U.S.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Sometimes, you’ve got FOIA friends in high places
The scandal-plagued University of Illinois, where a controversial VIP-preference admissions system has already toppled the president and the chair of the board of trustees, continues operating in "public transparency bunker" mode.