A Tale of Two cities

· Story link

There’s something to be learned in the way two neighboring cities handled botched requests to release public records, columnist Paul Giblin writes in Phoenix, Arizona’s East Valley Tribune. Scottsdale’s city attorney said withholding budget requests was okay because the public was too dumb to understand the budget process. Later, the town’s media relations guru said the spending requests weren’t yet fully formed. The town of Queen Creek responded to a citizen’s complaint by offering a seminar on handling records requests. The town’s attorney even suggested offering citizens a cup of coffee while the records are being pulled. (1/28/05)