Journal reporter Coleen Heild would like to know how many
"temporary" employees work for the state, link.
The question is cogent because it looks like the "temporary"
classification may be being used to cover up efforts to skirt
hiring freezes.
She asked;
How many other temporary employees are on the stateState Personnel Office Custodian of Public Records Shelia Zamora answered;
government payroll?
"I'm sorry to inform you that the State Personnel OfficeWhich is not to say, the State Personnel Office does not know
does not maintain document(s) relating to your request"
and cannot find out how many temporary employees there are,
just that, there is no individual sheet of paper entitled,
Temporary Employees on the State Payroll, lying within
her easy reach.
According to state law, she cannot be compelled to make a few
key strokes on her computer that would generate that record.
Which begs a question, does the fact that agencies cannot be
compelled to create records that don't already exist, allow them
to refuse to answer legitimate questions?
If the request had been sent to another public employee, like
someone pulling down $60K or $70K to be a Public Information Officer, would they have answered the question?
There is a line that separates what we should and should not
be told about the spending of our power and resources.
That line is currently a vast gray area. The line needs a razor
edge. Everything on our side of that line should be immediately
available; period.
If the line cannot be drawn for "every" record, then a process
needs to established, where the fate of disputed records can be
determined with the least amount of effort and delay.
And if we are going to pay good money to PIOs, we should get
good service in return. Between Records Custodians and PIOs,
everything we have a right to know about our government
should be a key stroke or phone call away.
It isn't, and for no reason other than to make it as difficult as it
can be made, to hold politicians and public servants honestly
accountable for their conduct and competence.
2 comments:
Most governments have a legally-stated limit to how much a "temporary" government employee makes per hour and/or per year.
I would assume this was put in place to avoid manipulations that can occur.
As I understand the manipulation; a job was created to justify the employee who was well paid to do what sounds like a gratuitous job.
You have to wonder if he "knew somebody".
I would argue that if there is a law in place to avoid this manipulation, it isn't working.
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