Councilman Collins and his attempts to get information from the City of Toledo…
This in via email from the office of District 2 Toledo City Councilman D. Michael Collins:
Dear Mr. Loukx,
I read with great interest your letter dated July 25, 2008 to William J. Carroll, Director of the Toledo Lucas County Port Authority, wherein you demanded public records based upon a document request of July 21, 2008. Please be advised that on July 21, 2008 I also made a public records request for the financials for the Erie Street Market, from the period of January 1, 2008 thru June 30, 2008.
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.
Obviously, my request does not carry the same level of importance to the Mayor and his Administration when it comes to due diligence to the taxpayers of The City of Toledo, albeit, it deals with the financial status of the Erie Street Market at this time, and in my opinion is of far greater importance than your efforts to duplicate an ongoing investigation.
I fully expect the documents requested will be in my office no later than 9am on Monday July 28, 2008.
Respectfully,
D. Michael Collins
Councilman, District 2
Good luck Mr. Collins! I’ve had to wait over a month for 1 FOIA request and then the information supplied was NOTHING close to what I asked for. Now, I’ve waited 2 weeks for the correct info AND an additional FOIA.
(It is anticipated that a Mandamus will be filed Monday, if deemed necessary by the attorneys I have working on this.)
July 25th, 2008 at 6:21 pmMr. 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 city think it’s wrong when something is being done to the city, then why do those people who run the city 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 sends 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?
July 25th, 2008 at 8:14 pmCorrection on my FOIA request – it’s been over 2 months.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:53 amMy thanks to Mr. Collins for his efforts.
The ESM has been nothing but a drain of city money…
Mayor/Capt. Queeg is nuts!
July 26th, 2008 at 2:40 pmWell whaddaya know? Toledo is finally waking up to what Brian Wilson and the WSPD talk hosts have been saying for over 2 years – including the little reference to Animal Farm about some being more equal than others. Wilson has quoted that line hundreds of times talking about “Mayor Pantload” and his gangland administration.
Thank God (and WSPD) for hammering on this. Maybe – just maybe – Toledoand will get of their brains and DO something. Soon.
July 27th, 2008 at 11:02 am[...] blogged here the other day, Councilman Collins was not happy with the delay in receiving requested information from the City. As of this morning it did not appear he received the requested [...]
July 28th, 2008 at 2:43 pmHere’s a letter I sent to Adam Loukx today:
Dear Mr. Loukx:
I have read your letter dated July 25th, 2008 to Toledo Lucas County Port Authority Director William J. Carroll, expressing “disappointment by the lack of response to date” concerning records requested by the City on July 21st.
In your letter, you alluded that the records requested are ‘part of normal business’ and should have been responded to within a “reasonable time” and further stating “the law does require that documents be made available for prompt inspection”. Accordingly, the City of Toledo believes that a “reasonable time for record production has already expired.” , indicating that the 4 days that have passed is more than which is allowable by both City of Toledo Public Records Policy and the Ohio Revised Code.
I have also read Councilman Collins’ letter to you concerning his July 21, 2008 public records request for financials on the Erie Street Market, (also documents produced as part of a normal business practice) and his concern with the Mayor’s resentment at not receiving information requested 3 days prior.
While the City’s indignation at not receiving documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act may be just, I must point out that I have been waiting since June 6, 2008 for documents concerning the ‘Administrative Process’ mentioned in Toledo Municipal Code, §313.12(d)(4), and since April 7, 2008 for documents concerning red light cameras within the City of Toledo, (which were again requested on June 6, 200
.
One one hand, I find the City’s apparent righteous stance over not receiving information they requested 3 days prior laughable. On the other, I find it disheartening that timely responses to public records requests become ‘more important’ when it’s the mayor making the request and not that of a Councilman or a citizen of Toledo.
It is apparent that the obstruction of access to public documents is intentional, deliberate and habitual and is ‘business as usual’ for the Administrators of the City of Toledo. If the City of Toledo is truly operating in a responsible and legal manner, then these requests should be no obstacle. The lack of response to FOIA requests made to the City is a true slap in the face to taxpayers.
In the meantime, I will be awaiting results from my records request for which I have been waiting for well over 3 months.
Cordially,
July 28th, 2008 at 5:38 pm.
.
(name, rank & horsepower redacted)
An update:
As of 13 August and after waiting for the City of Toledo’s ‘acting’ law director, Adam Loukx to have at least have the decency to respond to my letter, I filed a Mandamus against the City of Toledo, asking for the documents requested, court costs, attorney fees and to be granted the $100 per day ’statutory damages’ as allowed by the Ohio Revised Code, Section 149.43.
Why were the records I requested not provided? Is the City of Toledo that inept that they can’t follow State Law and their own Public Records Policy? Is it because the Administration feels they are ‘above the law’?
The outcome of the Mandamus may provide some answers.
I’ll keep you up-to-date.
August 16th, 2008 at 12:12 pm