(This post will be updated.)
We are appreciative of all the media exposure our campaign has had over the past couple weeks. Sometimes a piece requires nothing more than a share to push it along. Other times, we must respond to them.
The Ask the Mayor (John Dennis) July 2019 episode, hosted by Taylor Haggerty, is in the latter category.
First off, let us be clear: the Dennis campaign does not speak for our campaign. Obviously everyone is allowed to share their opinions, however, some of the responses by the Mayor during the show were patently false, exaggerated, or grossly inaccurate.
Proactive Transparency
Taylor asked: “Is everything online and available that could be at this point?”
Mayor Dennis responded: “That’s open to interpretation. There is the job of government. We provide service to the public: whether it be police work, fire departments, parks, engineering. There is work that needs to be done. I think that, that, no, there is not merit to that in the sense that he is never told no that he cannot have something.”
Candidate Baiel’s response: “The short answer is a resounding No. Everything that could be online is not.
This is where the current Dennis Administration and I have significant philosophical differences regarding democracy. I am deeply committed to the idea, as so described in Indiana Code, that the Public is ‘entitled to the full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those who represent them as public officials and employees.‘
One area of confusion regarding Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act are exemptions: what is compulsorily exempt from disclosure and what is at the discretion (read: pleasure) of the governmental agency.
Indiana Code IC 5-14-3-4 is very clear: there are 14 mandatory and 28 elective exemptions.
I have been denied by the Dennis Administration previously through one of the 28 voluntary exemptions. It was their decision to withhold information. They were not compelled to do so by law. They chose to exercise this exemption themselves.
We are currently (as of July 17th, 2019) still working with the Dennis Administration to gain access to the 2020 Budget information. I was previously told by City Counselor Burns that they would be exercising the Inter/Intra Agency exemption due to the deliberative nature the information.
[As a quick aside, I am not sure how the City Councilors, let alone the Public, are able to have a work session regarding the City’s budget if only the high-level account information is made available to discuss. And yet the work session was held on July 9th, 2019 with only high level information made available.]