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Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Ind. Gov't. - And how did that work out for you?
The award-winning environmental reporter for the Gary Post-Tribune, Gitte Laasby, who has broken many stories (including the BP permits issues in NW Indiana, and the existence of the so-called "Easterly's pile" on the Lake Mihigan beach), is reportedly not much beloved by IDEM.
So her Porter County editor got the bright idea to do a public records request of IDEM for its internal correspondence regarding Laasby's records requests to the agency. Here is part of what Rich Jackson, the editor, writes today:
In March, I asked reporter Gitte Laasby to request records from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management that referenced her. My direction to her was based on my own theory that the agency was intentionally withholding and otherwise seeking to squelch information to Laasby because she'd become a thorn in its side for her investigations into the agency.Here is a sample of e-mail with redacted information from IDEM.Of course, I understood if my thesis were accurate, the very documents we sought would be hidden or mitigated in some way.
In other words, bring out the big-ass Sharpie.
What you see here is a proposed IDEM response to Laasby about the Grand Calumet River and future cleanup efforts.
And this is only one of many examples we received.
Note that, other than the note at the top, every single word is redacted because the words are of ultimate import to the secrets of the state Indiana that all words cannot be released. Every article, noun, verb, dependent clause, all fall under the heading of being so much of a sensitive nature that no one should know about it. And even Laasby's name, which was part of the open records request -- if it exists in the blackness somewhere -- is too dangerous to release to the public.
One way the agency can do this is including an attorney in on the creation of a response, thus rendering it the work product of a lawyer and -- this is the cool part -- exempt from state open records laws.
Yet another exemption is if the nature of the record is deliberative, as in, "What if we said this ... "
I compare this to the records we requested late last year from the Indiana Department of Transportation about the closing of Cline Avenue. We chastised the agency in an editorial because it took so long. Once we received the records, we understood why. All we would have needed was the top page, a letter quickly outlining why the bridge had been closed. But INDOT, in its thoroughness, had included hundreds of pages of inspection reports, which our too-expansive request failed to cull out.
Two state agencies, both under direction of Gov. Mitch Daniels, and two exactly opposite reactions.
That leads me to understand that the problem lies as much with IDEM leadership as it does with the state's antiquated open records law.
What makes the hubris more remarkable, though, is that open records aren't about Laasby or me or the Post-Tribune. It's about the residents of Northwest Indiana and the fundamental right to know about the health -- or lack -- of our environment.
The taxpayer-supported upper management of IDEM thumbs its collective nose at the region's residents every time it hides a record or redacts minutiae.
We'll continue to attempt exposing what's happening at IDEM. But until Gov. Daniels steps in as the state's top officer, I suggest you cut out the accompanying document, make copies and paste it in public places so that everyone knows that this is your state's environmental management agency at work.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 2, 2010 12:37 PM
Posted to Environment | Indiana Government