Don’t take my word for it…
Yours truly got a little ink today in the Tribune when reporter, Rich Ecke, wrote about MEIC’s second Motion for Summary Judgment on the document release issue. As you will recall, the City signed a “Confidentiality Agreement with SME:
City Attorney David Gliko, who subsequently advised city officials against signing any more confidentiality agreements, said this fall he does not consider the agreement important at this stage. Lawton had said the confidentiality agreement was no longer valid, although the pact did not contain expiration dates.
But private Great Falls attorney Gregory Smith, an activist who has had difficulty obtaining some Highwood-related documents from the city, contended the city and/or SME continue to cite the confidentiality pact as one reason for withholding documents.
Don’t take my word for it.
Here you can find the City’s legend to its privilege log. The Confidentiality Agreement is reason “D” listed for withholding documents. The Confidentiality Agreement is listed as a ground for withholding every document in this privilege log, every document in this privilege log, and all but two of the documents in this privilege log.
So, when caught in the midst of a contract promising to keep secrets from the citizens they are sworn to represent, City officials dissemble by alleging the agreement is no longer valid. Yet, at the same time, they interject the same agreement as a legal grounds for secrecy in a District Court filing. That’s pretty disingenuous, isn’t it?
Well, I guess you could look at it that way.
If we had a real news organization in town they would be digging for underlying reasons why city officials are hiding documents so vigorously. Instead they repeat what we already know. A year late and without substance.
This is ripe Pulitzer material just waiting to be plucked off the vine.
“…City officials dissemble by alleging the agreement is no longer valid. Yet, at the same time, they interject the same agreement as a legal grounds for secrecy in a District Court filing.”
Bingo.
Thanks for your reporting Gregg.
[...] built there. He’s done the legwork, and uncovered tons of stuff. He gets a paragraph in the local paper, but no one is trying to dig any [...]
The only ‘digging’ is the city, and they should recall the old saying that ‘when you’re in a hole stop digging’, and that goes double for SME, old, new or whatever they think to call themselves.