Make public information public.

Jackson County, Oregon withheld public information and got the news headline they wanted.

It was manipulative. It was a power play. 

The news media make self-government possible. They are a primary mechanism for an informed citizenry. I happily subscribe to the Rogue Valley Times, the Grants Pass Daily Courier, and Ashland.news.

County Administrator Danny Jordan

On Thursday morning last week the Jackson County commissioners received a report from county administrator Danny Jordan outlining the presumed costs of adding two commissioners to the current three-person board. The local media were in attendance as were several members of the public, including the leaders of the Jackson County for All group that had gathered petitions to update the county charter. Jordan passed out several sheets of paper to each commissioner. The people in the small room were not allowed to see the numbers on those papers. 

These were not personnel files with Social Security numbers. Nor was it litigation strategy. It was public budget information of obvious public interest. It involved matters people would be voting on. A copy of what was being discussed right in front of them could have been shared by being posted on a wall for all to see -- but it was not.

The county told the small group -- a group that included reporters from two local newspapers, two television stations, and the local public radio station -- that they would not share the information contemporaneously. Everyone needed to file a public records request, a process that would take time and paperwork, and then consideration by the county on whether to charge them to get the information, and for how much, and only then to share it. Denise Krause, the leader of the Jackson County for All group, immediately filed such a request. She told me that she had not gotten an OK to get the information as of Thursday afternoon, although she learned that the Rogue Valley Times had gotten it, but only late that day. By coincidence I had telephoned their reporter that afternoon and he hurriedly told me he was right on deadline. The county got the story and headline I had predicted they would want in my post the day prior to the meeting -- a story reporting the purported difficulties and expense of going from three to five commissioners. The commissioners oppose the ballot measures. What better way to frame the issue than as one in which adding two commissioners would somehow be a giant burden. 

Here is the headline and photo in the RV Times:

Jordan had given me a heads up that his report would have high-ball numbers. He told me he would be allocating sheriff deputy retirement benefits pro rata to the new commissioners, although they don't share in those benefits. He cited as an example of new expenses that budget committee meetings would require a substantial remodel of the county auditorium because there would not be room on the dais for 10 people. For decades the budget committee met at tables in front of the dais, not on it. That would be a free and easy workaround, but free and easy solutions would not serve the purpose of a headline saying the initiative proposals would be expensive. The way to get that story out was to make sure there wasn't a prompt, informed response from the public to accompany Jordan's report. 

The county got what it wanted.

Jackson County is treating public information as if it were secrets to be pried from them. The Jackson County for All group is still waiting for the information and it may be five days or longer. They will need to pay $13 to get it, which they will happily pay. Remember, that information was right there on the table, available to be handed out or posted. But no. Jump through hoops. Wait. Pay. Wait some more.

The county has a bunker mentality. There is no law requiring that the county make public information hard to get. This is a choice. A policy of inconvenience. The county should want the public to know what it is doing. There are important issues where the county needs public support, including a major new jail, an animal shelter, and homeless people living on the Greenway. The county attitude should be one of helpfulness, not resistance, especially when information can be shared simply and at negligible cost, as in this case. It is far more costly for the county to process a public information request form than simply to be friendly and cooperative. 

Look at this invoice. What a waste! The county assigned staff time to prepare this, but not staff time to thumb-tack the public information to a bulletin board so it could be read by people standing in front of them.  

The media is not the enemy of the county. Nor is the public. This isn't a cost saving issue -- quite the opposite. There is no legal prohibition against making public information available --  again, the intent of our public meeting laws are quite the opposite. It is a control issue. The county is intentionally making it hard to see what it is doing. Bureaucratic delay stiff-arms the public. It is a manipulative way to influence what news the media will present. Making the general public and the media jump through hoops is a way to show who is boss. 

The county commissioners and their administrator have it backwards. The public is the boss.

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