Either Anne Arundel County handwrites records, or officials are purposefully trying to thwart taxpayers from reviewing how much they are paying their county employees.
The latter is the only likely explanation for County Attorney Patricia Logan?s response that it would cost between $113,000 and $172,000 to fulfill The Examiner?s Maryland Public Information Act request for the salaries, overtime and all other compensation paid to county government employees.
Leaving aside the $108,000 to $168,000 Logan estimates it would cost to review personnel records, redact information including Social Security numbers and home addresses, and copy them, she says it would cost about $5,000 to provide an Excel spreadsheet outlining total compensation for each employee and take about 2.5 weeks.
Anne Arundel is the only jurisdiction of the six sent MPIA requests ? Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Harford County, Howard County and Carroll County are the others ? that asks to be paid for the information.
Logan said, “I cannot speak for record-keeping by other counties, but we have taken the time to seriously review your request and compare it against our existing records. The response I provided was a realistic answer to what it will take to provide the records you have requested.”
The MPIA law is worthless if the transparency it supposedly supports is financially out of reach of citizens. Surely being rich isn?t a requirement for the right to hold government officials accountable forhow they are spending our money?
The steep cost makes it impossible not to wonder if the intent is to hide information considered embarrassing. Criminal? Who knows. Some employees in other counties have not appreciated the bright light of sunshine revealing their overtime hours. One official in another county said posting salaries and overtime could hurt employees who did not accurately report their full income in divorce settlements. So taxpayers should aid those who lie?
The fact that anyone would have to request this information makes no sense.
In this computer age, all governments in Maryland should make open all public records through online accessibility so that taxpayers can review how they spend our money. Everything about government is public. Most of it, by law, is open ? for everyone, not just for those with deep pockets or privileged access.
To encourage Supervising County Attorney Patricia Logan to make the requested information available as other governments have, Anne Arundel residents can reach her at 410-222-7888 or e-mail her at [email protected].
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