Really, that's his excuse.
In KC's public records lawsuit over the roads report:
Sabine also questioned the use of social media that allows preliminary documents to be sent out on blogs and websites though they are not a finished product.
"Let the staff do its job," he said.
Assistant City Attorney Greg Lusitana said releasing draft documents can create problems for staff.
"The city needs to be able to have a decision-making process free from second-guessing by public questioning of funding options," said Lusitana.
It's an arrogant, condescending attitude toward the public reminiscent of Nancy Pelosi. "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it."
Unfortunately, the Council refused to follow the Public Records Act. Staff told the Council the information wouldn't be released and Council quietly acquiesced to the staff. The Council has a "so sue us" attitude.
ReplyDeleteBoth Sabine and Lusitana said several times during the court hearing that releasing the documents would have had a "chilling" effect on the staff. The intent of the city, of course, is to have a "chilling" effect on the public in order to stifle participation, reduce time to studies documents, and limit as much as possible any organized opposition.
ReplyDeleteIt took the city two years to release the Hall property EIR documents. The excuse was that the documents were still in "draft" form. It turned out that all the technical studies by the consultants were done the first year and were in their final form. The city simply didn't want the opposition to get a jump on looking at thousands of pages of documents and finding all the irregularities.
Yes, it is a "sue us" attitude. In the case of the Hall property, the city got sued and has been whining about it ever since.
This is a bookend issue. While the City claims that material is still in "draft" form after years on the shelf, Patrick Murphy has gotten permission and $10,000 to "destroy documents" in the Planning Department. His justification was that he didn't have space to store them in his department. So what is the time period that citizens can actually view materials that seem to move rapidly from draft form to the paper shreader!
ReplyDeleteYet on Murphy's General Plan website, he states that comments critical of the department or policies won't be posted. What else is there to talk about where Encinitas City employees, with their skill level are involved? I don't want to assume that they are all bad, but the leaders in the city seem to discourage competent and ethical behavior.
I think that the pay that Glenn Sabine gets goes to prove that men who earn million dollar wages seem more attractive than they actually are. Couldn't he have just signed up for one of those make-over shows, instead of extracting funds from Encinitas taxpayers for failed professional services that anyone else would be ashamed of?
ReplyDeleteAnd obviously, he is attracted to Finance Manager Smith for her mind. Why are we paying for her to take accounting classes now that we have a new City Manager who actually does have a financial backgroud? What was the hiring process for her to go from secretary to Finance Director? Who else applied for the job, and is it not a conflict of interest for her to have involvement in determining Sabine's contract?
Why don't they just hire a new full-time person at a similar wage to the City Manager and get rid of both Lusitana and Sabine, so that we don't have 2 parasites rewarded for making the City look idiotic at taxpayer expense? The more that they lose the more they get paid to appeal!
Why not just clean house and hire competent people and get away from the Peyton Place tone of this City Hall, so that we can get on with the business of representing the voters, not dividing the spoils in the back rooms of City Hall?
I can only say that Mr. Kevin Cummins has A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO, if he is the reason that Encinitas staff members perform as they do and he is the one preventing them from doing their jobs!
ReplyDelete