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Open letter to Moyie Springs officials

September 13, 2011
An Open Letter to the City Clerk of Moyie Springs;

Recently, you initially denied my request for public records.

The request was made by email.

This is provided for in the new public records law H0328: IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES HOUSE BILL NO. 328 BY WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE...”TO PROVIDE THAT REQUESTS FOR PUBLIC RECORDS AND DELIVERY OF PUBLIC RECORDS MAY BE MADE BY ELECTRONIC MAIL.”

The request contained all the information required by the city.

Your stated reason for denial of the requested records was “I can’t send you the records without a signed request form.”

The form was signed. Idaho law allows for electronic signatures. The form that was provided to me merely states “Person Requesting Records.”

If you want a printed, paper copy you merely needed to print out the request. If you want your copy to be on a 8.5 x 14 (legal size) you merely need to print it on that size.

Ironically, your refusal to my request was sent by email.

Not an “official” form, not “signed.”

According to Idaho law, “The written denial for all or part of a request for information must state the statutory authority (emphasis added) for the denial, and include a clear statement of the right to appeal and the time for doing so.”

Found in Office of the Attorney General, Idaho Public Records Law Manual.

If the city has an ordinance or law requiring only forms certified and approved by the city be used, then provide taxpayers the same fillable forms electronically online.
Rosanne Smith
Moyie Springs, Idaho
Editor's note: Roseanne Smith challenged this journal to obtain Moyie Springs City Council minutes and other public documents, and I did place a call to city clerk Sandy Tompkins requesting them; offering to assist the town inform its citizens. I was advised that she would confer with the city council to determine whether she was allowed to send me those documents or whether, as any citizen, I would have to travel to her office to formally request them.

I never followed up.

In the meantime, Moyie Springs City Council minutes began coming my way, and were duly published, verbatim. Roseanne's letter, above, shows why those minutes stopped.

As a result, the City of Moyie Springs is going to be faced with a challenge; provide this journal with all minutes, legal notices and other information deemed public by Idaho statute, in form that will facilitate the publication of those documents and not subject to the convenience of the clerk, the mayor or the council, or face stern chastisement from the Idaho Attorney General.

It is my understanding that at the meeting following my request, the city's legal counsel advised Sandy and the council that it would be in their best interest to abide the requests of media, but concerns were raised that the media might give a wrong "spin" and that advice was ignored, perhaps with the idea that nothing that happens in Moyie leaves Moyie ... or doesn't matter.

I wasn't there, but if that's what was said, my journalistic interest is piqued ... is there something being hidden?

By statute, the purpose of the Idaho Open Meeting Law and those requirements for legal publication is to inform the public. That statute requires publication of all important information concerning a municipality or county government to publish, in the newspaper of record, legal notice. For that, they are required to pay that journal rates established by law in exchange of a guarantee of publication.

That law goes on to say that, in addition to legal publication, municipalities and county governments should do all they can to to inform its citizenry, and recommends making public information know by all means available. The city doesn't pay for press releases, but it costs, at most a postage stamp to send it. I don't even need that; my media is electronic, and it doesn't cost the city anything.

It's not "fun" publishing Bonners Ferry or Boundary County notices or minutes; I can't get a "scoop" because they always beat me to it by publishing first on their own website ... a tactic, I add, that helps keep us journalists honest. I can't find the government of Moyie Springs on line, however.

I don't think the mayor, the city council or the city clerk of the municipality of Moyie Springs are trying to hide anything ... but I might be wrong.

I don't have the time or resources to go look for myself and they're denying me convenient access to information to which I'm not only entitled, but which they should be grateful that I'm offering to share, at no cost to the taxpayer, with their constituents.

What makes my interest even more critical is the treatment the City of Moyie Springs inflicted on Roseanne Smith. Before Moyie Springs minutes began appearing on these pages, the documents she requested were handed her with a grump and a forced smile.

Now she has to fill out forms?

Wake up, leaders of Moyie Springs ... listen to your counsel and your constituents. Even if you have nothing to hide, those actions make it look like you do. Despite what you might read in the tabloids, journalists aren't out to "get" anyone unless they deserve to be got.

99.9% of the time, an open media policy will help you do the job you do, not hinder.

Instead of hiding your light under a basket, you should be grateful that there's an honest local media to shine a light on what you do, and you should use it to your every advantage.
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