March 17,
2011
TAXPAYER’S
WATCHDOG GROUP, INC.
March
17, 2011
OPEN RECORDS & SUNSHINE—THE JASPER COUNTY WAY
At the last BOC meeting the County Manager told the
commissioners he wanted a contract. The
commissioners had some information about it in their packets and the
TWG
requested copies of that information.
REQUEST—
From:
Taxpayer Watchdog
[mailto:taxpayerwatchdogs@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 4:25 PM
To: gwood@jaspercountyga.org
Subject: Open Records Request
Mr. Wood,
Yesterday I had to leave the meeting early. Would you please send
me the
information concerning the county manager contract that was given to
the
commissioners in the packets they receive.
If you would please send this on email I would
appreciate it.
Juanita Gazaway
RESPONSE—
From:
Greg Wood <gwood@jaspercountyga.org>
To: Taxpayer Watchdog
<taxpayerwatchdogs@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tue, March 8, 2011 5:04:37 PM
Subject: RE: Open Records Request
I am not refusing your records
request, but since the taxpayer watchdogs are not an incorporated body
or
otherwise legally recognizable group, counsel has
advised that records requests need to come from individuals until such time that
the group incorporates or establishes
another legally recognized and identifiable status.
As to this request,
the only
information provided was in the agenda package. Everything else
was done
in Executive Session for which I was not present and is not subject to
open
records requests.
Greg Wood
REPLY—
From:
Taxpayer Watchdog
[mailto:taxpayerwatchdogs@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 9:37 PM
To: Greg Wood
Cc: sritter@law.ga.gov; Juanita Gazaway
Subject: Re: Open Records Request
Mr. Wood:
You need to get your facts straight! The
Taxpayer's Watchdog Group has been incorporated since March 19, 2002. I would appreciate you and the
"Counsel' getting me the open
records I requested. I
would also like you to please quote me the Georgia
Code Section that you and counsel used to make a decision such as
this.
Furthermore, I don't care about what happened in Executive Session; I
happen to
know this is not open records. I asked for what was given to the
Board of
Commissioners in their "PACKET".
Juanita Gazaway, Co-Chair
TAXPAYER WATCHDOG GROUP, INC.
cc: Mr. S. Ritter
Attorney Generals Office.
-----------------------------------------
TWG did
finally get the
information requested, and we want all citizens to know what type of
contract
our BOC may be considering. The link is
below. However, as of
today, no Code Section has been produced as to how
our county manager and “the counsel” can withhold open
records from anyone.
This reminds
us of
several years ago when anything the BOC wanted hidden, excuses were
made and
documents hidden until the Attorney General’s office sent a
representative down. Are we going back to
that again? At one
meeting after the County
Manager
was just hired he
talked all about “transparency” and how he was even going
to put the agenda
packets online for everyone to see. Now
TWG can hardly get a page or two from it.
County Manager
Contract
Request
If this link
does not
work go to our website.
Has
anyone else noticed that at the top of every email and article it says
“TAXPAYER’S
WATCHDOG GROUP,
INC.”??
