Sometimes, discussion of the public’s right to know what its government is doing can get lost in lofty rhetoric — especially during this month’s Sunshine Week, a national campaign to promote dialogue about transparency in government and freedom of information in a free society.
Yet, we need to remember that while the issue is of practical and professional interest to news organizations, it is of vital importance to everyone, because our democracy thrives on open government. And that requires public access to government records and meetings.
Too often, elected and appointed officials at the local, state and federal level forget they are the servants of the voters who put them there; they forget that the Town Hall, Statehouse or Capitol is not their private domain.
On the national level, we’ve seen reports that our federal officials have become stingy in release of public information of late. The federal government censored, withheld or said it couldn’t find records sought by citizens, journalists and others more often last year than at any point in the past decade, according to an Associated Press analysis of new data. Being able to see inside our government is not a Republican or Democratic issue, it’s an American imperative.
Being able to learn what’s happening within our government is just as important at the local level, where we can have a more direct impact. Two recent stories in Hampshire and Franklin counties illustrate how access to public documents, in a very practical way, allows us to learn what’s going on in our communities.
The Daily Hampshire Gazette reported in January that Northampton Police Lt. Alan Borowski violated department rules by using his city vehicle for personal trips and treating subordinates with undue harshness. Those violations were in addition to Borowski’s mishandling contents of the Police Department’s drug drop box. He was placed on paid administrative leave for two months last year and returned to work in November after serving five days of unpaid leave.
The Gazette’s request for reports by an outside investigator as well as an internal investigation of Borowski’s activities was originally denied by the Police Department. However, the reports were released after the Gazette appealed to the state’s supervisor of public records, which ruled for the newspaper.
Without the specifics provided by the reports, citizens’ trust in the Northampton Police Department could be undermined.
In Franklin County, Charles “Chip” Dodge, who became Montague’s police chief in 2012, was suspended briefly in June of 2016 after investigators from the state attorney general’s office came to town. Neither the attorney general nor the town’s Select Board would say why the chief had been suspended. The Select Board restored Dodge to duty after four days with a full-throated endorsement, but no explanation about what the attorney general’s office was investigating.
We now know that the attorney general was investigating suspicions that someone was stealing painkillers from the Montague Police Department’s prescription medication drop box. Although no one was ever charged with anything, Dodge may have been singled out because he was in charge of the drop box and he was in recovery for opioid addiction.
This information about their police chief was of great interest and importance to the people of Montague — and it would not have come to light if not for the state public records law that allowed the Greenfield Recorder to see Town Hall emails that explained what was behind that visit by attorney general investigators.
In September 2016, the Recorder reported that the attorney general’s probe was related to the drop box program and that the Northwestern district attorney’s office had suspended Montague police from that program and from the regional crime task force, pending the outcome of the attorney general’s investigation.
In October, the Select Board suspended Dodge again while a private investigator reviewed police operations. His report led to a series of negotiations with Dodge and his ultimate resignation.
The reporting shone light through the cloud that had hung over the department for nearly two years. Residents finally were able to see the important information they deserved to know about their own Police Department and its chief.
That could not have been done without the state’s public records law, which recognizes the government’s business is the people’s business.