Miscommunication fueled dispute between state agency and the Sun Journal.

One very important principle for me as commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services is to lead an organization that is accessible and open to public view. This agency is committed to the importance of the right to know.

In a recent column, written by Judith Meyer, the Sun Journal has accused the Department of Health and Human Services of working to “downright block” a data request regarding the number of welfare recipients employed at Maine’s 50 largest companies.

From a data collection standpoint, the information requested by the Sun Journal under the Maine Freedom of Information Act was unusual and somewhat more complicated than any previous request from an organization outside state government. Nevertheless, the Sun Journal deserved a clear and unambiguous response in the public interest.

The bottom line is that we wish we had delivered the information more rapidly. Clearly, we believe we could have done better with the request. That said, we don’t think the aggressive claims of “blocking” describe what actually happened. In fact, we responded to the initial data request by the Sun Journal on the number of welfare recipients employed at Maine’s 20 largest companies.

When we met with the Sun Journal editorial board on Aug. 2, one of the things we talked about was the Sun Journal’s additional request for the next 30 largest employers in the state of Maine. It was my understanding that the information requirements and means by which it would be provided had been satisfied. Having said that, it was never our intent to use the argument that the information was too complicated and expensive to produce as a means to prevent access to this information, or to otherwise hope the request would just go away. That kind of approach is not my style and not the culture I am committed to build at the new Department of Health and Human Services.

We suffered from a lack of communication and follow-through after the Aug. 2 meeting, complicated by the unusual nature of the request. In addition, we had to be sensitive to the confidential nature of the information and the possibility that individual state beneficiaries could be identified.

Under the terms of the Maine Freedom of Access Act, state agencies may charge a fee for the reasonable cost of providing the requested information and are not required to disrupt normal state operations in order to produce the information. The original request for the 20 largest employers having in their employ state benefit recipients required eight hours of programming and approximately one week for two senior staff to compile. In the interest of full and open disclosure, we did not charge the Sun Journal for this expense.

The second request for the next 30 largest employers having in their employ state benefit recipients also will take one week for the same two senior staff to compile. The programming has already been completed. We sincerely appreciate the offer of the Sun Journal to provide information technology assistance. However, we want to ensure the confidentiality of state benefit recipients and have chosen to compile the information with state staff. Again, we will not seek payment of the expense from the Sun Journal in support of the public interest.

We appreciate that the road on this request became too long. However, the early provision of information on Maine’s top 20 employers reflects that it was never this department’s intent to “downright block” access.

John R. Nicholas is commissioner of the state Department of Health and Human Services.