VDT editorial yesterday,

Violating public trust,

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens successfully fought for and
implemented changes to the state’s Open Records law, believing that
transparency in government is essential to the public trust. The law
passed in 2012 states, “The General Assembly finds and
declares that the strong public policy of this state is in favor of
open government; that open government is essential to a free, open,
and democratic society; and that public access to public records
should be encouraged to foster confidence in government and so that
the public can evaluate the expenditure of public funds and the
efficient and proper functioning of its institutions.”

The VDT asked for records from the Lowndes County school system
and didn’t get them.
Their experience sounds quite similar to many LAKE has had
with the county government in particular,
with records not being provided in the statutory three days,
and sometimes not even an excuse or a list of what might
eventually be available.

That plus

failure to make even agendas for the Planning Commission available
in a timely fashion so citizens can see whether they need to attend
(somebody explain to me
the expense of agendas; clearly I don’t understand this
Internet suff),
and even in response to open records requests returning paper
when the documents are obviously composed in electronic formats,
agendas for County Commission meetings that are

just plain incorrect, resulting in people taking time off from work
to show up unnecessarily for a Sabal Trail pipeline item that didn’t happen,
a

public hearing that wasn’t listed as such on the agenda,
a secretive retreat “work session”,
and not

even being clear about what tax dollars for SPLOST would go for.
That’s not even all; just a sample of county government lack of
transparency.

And it’s not just the County Commission.
Look at Continue reading →