Tag: Open records
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Wichita public school logo fight legal costs
Yesterday’s Wichita Eagle reported in a story that USD 259, the Wichita public school district, “… worked for about five years to get its mark registered over the objection of Washington apple growers …” The article is referring to a logo that Wichitans for Effective Education has been using on some of its printed materials.…
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Wichita School District: Accountability is on Our Terms
USD 259, the Wichita public school district, wants to be held accountable. They say so. It’s a theme of the proposed bond issue, as recently stated by celebrity spokesman George Fahnestock: “…the district?s accountability is strong…” (See CARE launches Yes For Kids campaign) But what happens when citizens seek information from USD 259 that will…
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Records Requests Sent Today
Today, I’ve made two records requests under the Kansas Open Records Act. The first, to USD 259, the Wichita public school district, is this: All correspondence between USD 259 and Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey Architecture and its representatives from July 1, 2007 to the present. I ask for both written and electronic correspondence such as…
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Alaska Climate Change Sub-Cabinet: Not an Example of Sarah Palin’s Transparent Government
Paul Chesser of Climate Strategies Watch has done some investigative work seeking to understand the role of The Center for Climate Strategies in Alaska. (The Alaska Climate Change Sub-Cabinet plays the same role there that the Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy Advisory Group (KEEP) plays here.) In his excellent and informative post Palin, Alaska’s Climate…
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Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy Advisory Group: Hiding Budget Numbers
Paul Chesser of Climate Strategies Watch writes about the budget transparency of the Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy Advisory Group, or KEEP. Kansas government often has troubles with transparency. One of the main problems with KEEP is that policy is being formulated under the guidance of an outside radical environmentalist group, instead of in the…
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When A Records Request Fails
When a citizen makes a records requests and the records that were received don’t match the request, what should the citizen do? The records I received match the request I made in that they relate to the governmental entity and its relationship to a certain business, but they are for a time period much older…
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Earthjustice in Kansas: The Press Release
I’ve recently learned that the radical environmentalist group Earthjustice played a role in the rejection of a coal-fired power plant in Kansas. I didn’t learn that from any Kansas news source, but only from Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, and only then long after the permit for the plant was denied. See Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius…
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Wichita Council Member Jeff Longwell: We Can, and Do, Read
Wichita City Council Member Jeff Longwell, in the news article Little time to review Warren loan terms (July 1, 2008 Wichita Eagle), was reported as remarking “It’s unlikely many residents would read the full contract even if it had been made public earlier.” Mr. Longwell, many people in Wichita do read documents such as these.…
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Wichita Public School District’s Taxation Without Information
Taxation without information. I wish I could take credit for inventing this phrase that I recently heard someone use. It captures very well the key characteristic of USD 259, the Wichita public school district, and its campaign for the proposed 2008 bond issue.
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Wichita public schools: Open records requests are a burden
I recently learned that USD 259 (the Wichita, Kansas public school district) considers it a burden when citizens make requests for records. At least that’s what Lynn Rogers, vice-president of the board of USD 259, told me at a May 12, 2008 meeting when I was invited to express concerns regarding my opposition to the…
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Open records in Kansas follow-up
I have been recruited to participate in the Sunshine Blogger Project, an effort to gauge the compliance of the nations’ governors with open records laws as they exist in each state. I wrote about my experience with the office of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius in this article: Open Records in Kansas. The letter I received…