Delay tactics

On the issue of privatization, Georgia’s open records law seems clear.
Any private firm, person or entity performing a “service or function on behalf of an agency” is subject to disclosure “to the same extent that such records would be subject to disclosure if received or maintained by such agency.”

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Well, don’t count on getting any records.

Even in states where the law and the courts’ interpretation have made clear that contractors must turn over their records, actual compliance is low, as a recent public records audit by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press found out.

In early March, the Reporters Committee sent 120 public records requests to private contractors and quasi-public organizations, as well as their public counterparts, in six states where the public records statutes and the case law appear to provide access.

The request was simple: the name and salary of the highest-paid employee.

The results — for both the public and private entities — was dismal. After more than four months, four in five had not responded. Some complied quickly. Others were openly hostile.

The requests were aimed at two common types of privatized entities: privately run prisons, jails or juvenile correctional facilities, and charter schools.

Most prisons or juvenile centers are run under typical contracting relationships. Charter schools, on the other hand, are usually created by statute and have characteristics of both public and private schools. For instance, in many states, they are run by nonprofit boards but receive public funding.

Requests were also sent to public schools and publicly run correctional facilities in the same states. Letters were sent directly to the schools and detention centers and addressed to the principal, warden or whoever else was in charge of the facility.

The public prisons were three times more like to reply than the private prisons, which responded only 11 percent of the time.
In the end, the charter and public schools had the same response rate: one in five complied.

Of the schools that replied, some sent their responses within days and none took more than a month. They responded by e-mail, fax and mail, taking advantage of the fact that the requests, sent on Reporters Committee letterhead, contained multiple forms of contact information.

Some used that information more to harangue requesters than to facilitate a fast reply.

Five days after a request was mailed to Roland Park Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore, Md., a woman who identified herself as a secretary called, saying they had “never received a request before” and saying that if compliance was “something that the law required,” the letter should have gone to human resources.

When asked if she could forward the request to human resources, she replied, “I don’t think they’re going to take the time to find out the highest-paid employee.” When asked her name, she said, “Thank you,” and hung up the phone.

Vanessa Pyatt, the director of public relations for Baltimore city schools, said that is “absolutely not” the proper response.
She said school administrators are briefed at the beginning of each school year on the public relations policy, which Pyatt said requires public information requests to be forwarded to the district’s office of legal counsel to be processed.

“Regardless of who it’s sent to, the process is in place for the request to be forwarded,” Pyatt said.

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