I just read reporter Nickie Dobo’s story about a York County resident who asked to see a copy of the working budget for South Eastern School District.
No, the district said, we won’t give you that. It’s only a draft, and it would be a “disservice to the to the community and to the district” to release it.
A disservice to the community? How exactly? I’m thinking the whole point of a resident wanting to see a working budget is to see how the district is creating its budget, and that it’s not all that helpful to only be able to see the finished product.
Anyway, you see that kind of reasoning sometimes when agencies deny records — what amounts to an agency telling a person that they can’t handle the document they’re requesting, or wouldn’t understand it, or something similar. South Eastern’s business manager, for example, said the public shouldn’t see the document because “it’s not accurate.”
I assume that by “accurate” she meant “final.” But even if she meant that there were mistakes in the draft budget, again, what harm can come from this kind of public oversight? There seems to be an assumption that the requester, upon being told that it is a draft budget subject to change, would not understand and would assume the budget was final.
I’d love to have a discussion here on why it seems that some agencies believe people can’t be trusted to look at what their government is doing.
The state’s Office of Open Records granted the requester’s appeal in this case. The district is considering whether to appeal. This is one to watch.