Americans are proud people. We’re proud of our founders and our freedom, proud of the founders, especially, for seeking our freedom above all else.

The American Declaration of Independence has been called the “want, will and hopes of the people.” The sentiment driving this unique document was one of desperation for fairness and a desire to establish a government that would treat its subjects with fairness and decency.

In making their case, the signers of the Declaration declared, “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states.”

In submitting facts supporting such an accusation, the signers accused the king – among many other indecencies – of calling together “legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.”

We absolved ourselves from all allegiance to the British Crown on July 4, 1776, and then fought desperately to retain the independence and freedoms we enjoy today.

One of the founding tenets of this nation is access to public records and the ability to freely attend public meetings.

In 1959, some 183 years after our national independence was declared, Maine adopted its Freedom of Access Act. It was one of the first such laws in the nation, established to guarantee the public has a right to know how government conducts our business.

It’s a tool the public has at its disposal to ensure government accountability every day.

When, as the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition’s recent public records audit encountered, a municipal clerk receives a properly submitted request for public information and is told “I am sorry to inform you that the e-mails I have are not information I care to copy,” the public’s right to know is purposely obstructed.

The clerk doesn’t have to care. She has to provide the information.

It’s the law, adopted by the people’s representatives.

Maine’s Freedom of Access Act guarantees public access to meetings and to public records, regardless of who we are and what we want the information for. That a clerk doesn’t “care to copy” the information is a violation of the public’s right to know and a wound in the public trust.

The MFOIC public records audit released today is a follow-up to a 2002 project, one in which the police departments statewide demonstrated poor compliance with the public’s right to know. Since 2002, police departments across Maine have aggressively trained their officers, have improved their response to public requests for information and have become a fine example of service to the public.

The audit results of 2006 indicate school departments and municipal offices are not so responsive to the public. And, in fact, can be suspicious. Worse, they can just ignore public requests for information.

That’s just not acceptable in a land established on freedom of access.