LEWISTON – Gov. John Baldacci had convened a meeting with officials from Greene, Turner, Leeds and Buckfield. The topic was regionalization, a Baldacci priority this legislative session and a topic of much public debate.
But the governor refused to let the public attend. He asked a Sun Journal freelance reporter to leave, saying the press and public were excluded as a matter of “policy.”
Later that day, the governor called the Sun Journal to apologize for what he termed an “awkward situation.” Given that quorums of two boards of selectmen were present, and acknowledging regionalization is a topic of great interest to citizens, Baldacci said the public ought to have been included in the discussions.
Since this incident last year, the governor and his top-level staff have undergone training on Maine’s Freedom of Access Act. His office has publicly supported ongoing legislative work to improve Maine’s public access laws, and Baldacci signed a proclamation in observance of Sunshine Week acknowledging “open government is a fundamental principle of our democracy.”
The incident in the governor’s office is one of many examples demonstrating that while there is agreement on the concept of open government, the practice is often mangled at all levels of government in Maine.
In 2003, the Sun Journal filed suit against the city of Auburn to gain access to a report on the arrest of Mayor Normand Guay, a report that examined whether police acted unprofessionally and whether city officials were unfairly leveraging contract negotiations with threats of disciplinary action against officers.
Critical of the newspaper’s lawsuit, then-Councilor Kelly Matzen said the Sun Journal had done “a disservice to the community in their quest to prove they have the right to know … They’ve lost sight of the right of elected officials not to be harassed … “
The Sun Journal argued it was the public’s right to know what the investigation revealed, and the city released the report several months after the lawsuit was filed.
Maine’s Freedom of Access Act defines public records as any written matter from which information can be obtained that is in the possession of an agency or public official, unless specifically shielded by law.
Despite this clarity, early this month the town manager in Dixfield initially refused to release a preliminary audit of the town’s books until he’d had a chance to review it and present it to selectmen. Once the Sun Journal pressed the issue, citing the public records definition, the manager did release the document.
This concept that draft or preliminary reports are not public until “approved” by a board is a long-held misunderstanding that the Maine Municipal Association has been working with its members to resolve.
There is confusion at all levels of government about what records are public and what meetings must be open, because not every elected or appointed official has been trained on public access law, and government officials tend to err on the side of secrecy.
In Paris, Oxford and Norway, selectmen recently held a training session to learn more about FOI law after questions arose on whether executive sessions were being properly called.
The Maine School Management Association is training its members and working to raise awareness of Maine FOI law in school districts throughout the state.
On the federal level, the Sun Journal learned last year that the U.S. Postal Service zealously guards the precise addresses of its Maine post offices.
Despite a written request to obtain the street addresses of each post office, the U.S. Postal Service refused to provide the information. Instead, it provided a photocopy of zip codes from the back of a telephone book.
Postal Service spokesman Gerry McKiernan took weeks responding to a second Sun Journal request. When the list was finally provided, more than 60 offices were missing street addresses and some offices were missing.
The Postal Service denied outright a request for information on customer volume and on the flow of funds to individual post offices, citing an exemption in the federal FOI law “where disclosure could be reasonably expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual.”
While such examples are frustratingly too frequent, the good news is that Maine has been recognized by FOI advocates across New England as being progressive in promoting and preserving public access to government through recent legislation and education, steadying the fundamental principle of government by the people.
Judith Meyer is Sun Journal managing editor/days and vice president of the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition.
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