From the Lexington Dispatch (5/26/10): Public records laws guarantee citizens the rights to certain government documents. From time to time, individuals or organizations will test the accessibility to those documents, and far too often they find roadblocks erected by government employees.
On first pass, that seemed to be the case when a class at Campbell University conducted a research study in all 100 counties in North Carolina. They requested information from four officials in each county and graded them based on response. Since students received two of the four pieces of information for Davidson County, the students assigned a grade of 50 percent.
Hold on, county officials said. One never received the request. Another wrote back seeking clarification but never heard a reply. They took issue with the conclusion that public officials don’t respond to requests for public information.
The concerns do cast reasonable doubt on the methodology and conclusions of the Campbell study, but an important fact should not be overlooked. Government employees must take reasonable requests for information seriously and do everything within their means to comply as quickly as possible.