Patrick’s petulance
By Boston Herald Editorial Staff
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
The subject of a particular public records request is almost immaterial. It is the Patrick administration’s reluctance to provide records in cases that might embarrass public officials — as well as Gov. Deval Patrick’s “none of your beeswax” attitude, on display Monday — that ought to infuriate the taxpayers of this state.
The administration in April refused the Herald’s request for parking records for the State House parking garage, where lawmakers and other public officials park (for nothing). The Herald appealed the denial to the secretary of state’s office, which has yet to rule. Fine.
But the governor bristles at a challenge.
“First of all, you’re not entitled to [the records],” Patrick told a Herald reporter at the State House on Monday.
Why, the reporter inquired.
“Because you’re not.”
Oh, well OK then.
That refusal came a few months after the administration refused to release itemized cell phone records for any of the 50 office staffers who use state-issued, taxpayer-funded cell phones, including Lt. Gov. Tim Murray. The administration has refused to produce records that might provide details of Murray’s cell phone activity in the hours before and after his early-morning car crash last November.
We’d argue that staff cell phone records are of vital public interest. But again, it’s not so much the subject of the records that is the source of outrage. It is the fact that this administration errs on the side of non-disclosure when it doesn’t care for the underlying request — or perhaps for the party making the request.
True, neither the governor’s office nor the Legislature is strictly subject to the state’s public records law, which itself is an outrage. But running requests through an embarrassment filter before deciding whether to fulfill them once again puts the lie to this administration’s claim of unprecedented transparency.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view/20220718patricks_petulance/
The administration in April refused the Herald’s request for parking records for the State House parking garage, where lawmakers and other public officials park (for nothing). The Herald appealed the denial to the secretary of state’s office, which has yet to rule. Fine.
But the governor bristles at a challenge.
“First of all, you’re not entitled to [the records],” Patrick told a Herald reporter at the State House on Monday.
Why, the reporter inquired.
“Because you’re not.”
Oh, well OK then.
That refusal came a few months after the administration refused to release itemized cell phone records for any of the 50 office staffers who use state-issued, taxpayer-funded cell phones, including Lt. Gov. Tim Murray. The administration has refused to produce records that might provide details of Murray’s cell phone activity in the hours before and after his early-morning car crash last November.
We’d argue that staff cell phone records are of vital public interest. But again, it’s not so much the subject of the records that is the source of outrage. It is the fact that this administration errs on the side of non-disclosure when it doesn’t care for the underlying request — or perhaps for the party making the request.
True, neither the governor’s office nor the Legislature is strictly subject to the state’s public records law, which itself is an outrage. But running requests through an embarrassment filter before deciding whether to fulfill them once again puts the lie to this administration’s claim of unprecedented transparency.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view/20220718patricks_petulance/
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