Shores efforts to restrict salary information before election
July/09/2009 17:59
The following guest blog posting is from Henry S. Woloson, J.D., the driving force behind Energize Michigan. This organization has the goal of reforming state and local government to improve transparency, efficiency and tax policies. In this posting, Mr. Woloson tells citizens how Grosse Pointe Shores officials obstructed the efforts of his organization to use the Freedom of Information Act to find out just how much some of our civic employees are compensated.
The experience that Mr. Woloson relates raises the following questions. Who authorized the Shores attorney to fight the FOIA request and used taxpayer’s money to try to avoid releasing information that the public is entitled to know? Just how many hours at $200+ an hour were billed to the Shores by Mr. McInerney to prevent taxpayers from knowing how their dollars were spent? Could this blatant effort to avert the salary of Shores employees becoming public be linked with the timing of the recent election to approve the new charter and elect new council members?
Read Mr. Woloson’s letter, and draw your own conclusions!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 9, 2009
Dr. Lee:
Thank you for contacting me concerning our unsuccessful efforts to secure financial information from the Village of Grosse Pointe Shores.
As we discussed, I belong to a statewide group seeking to have voters convene a State Constitutional Convention. Our hope is to amend the State Constitution to improve the transparency and efficiency of local and state government along with reviewing our tax policies and other issues.
On December 30, 2008, I mailed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to Michael Kenyon at the Village offices seeking compensation information for: 1) Michael Kenyon 2) James Cooke 3) Brett Smith and 4) Angela Kenyon. Our group is interested in amending the State Constitution to require better disclosure of the compensation and benefits paid to government employees.
It is important to note that the compensation information I requested has since been released and is disclosed on the home page of your website so it was apparently not as sensitive as the Village management portrayed it.
Village Corporation Counsel Mark McInerney wrote to me on January 7, 2009 that ten additional business days were needed to respond to my request. He stated: “This extension is necessitated by the nature of your request and the need to search a number of documents stretching over several years in order to obtain all (or as much as can be located) of the information you request.”
The request for extra time to respond seemed reasonable so I waited.
In a subsequent letter dated January 26, 2009, Mr. McInerney declined three times to produce any records and/or information. He wrote that, “the Village is not obligated to prepare or provide” a “new public record” which is what he deemed I was seeking. Obviously this was not true since he should have been aware of documents called payroll records which are used to record compensation to personnel.
Although Mr. McInerney indicated in his second letter that I could appeal the rejection to circuit court, I declined in order to avoid having the Village incur any additional legal expenses related to this request.
Looking back, it seems probable that Mr. McInerney, presumably at the direction of the Village, never intended to release the information that was being sought by my FOIA request. Someone did not want residents to know about the 2008 compensation of $207,000 paid to Mike Kenyon and the $149,000 paid to Angela Kenyon. Again, this compensation information has since been revealed with no apparent adverse impact on the environment. Why was it so sensitive in January but not now?
Our group continues to encourage a yes vote for Michigan in November, 2010 to authorize a State Constitutional Convention. Our experience with the Village of Grosse Pointe Shores management supports our call for greater government transparency.
Thank you.
Henry S. Woloson, J.D.
Web site: http://www.energizemichigan.com/index.html
The experience that Mr. Woloson relates raises the following questions. Who authorized the Shores attorney to fight the FOIA request and used taxpayer’s money to try to avoid releasing information that the public is entitled to know? Just how many hours at $200+ an hour were billed to the Shores by Mr. McInerney to prevent taxpayers from knowing how their dollars were spent? Could this blatant effort to avert the salary of Shores employees becoming public be linked with the timing of the recent election to approve the new charter and elect new council members?
Read Mr. Woloson’s letter, and draw your own conclusions!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 9, 2009
Dr. Lee:
Thank you for contacting me concerning our unsuccessful efforts to secure financial information from the Village of Grosse Pointe Shores.
As we discussed, I belong to a statewide group seeking to have voters convene a State Constitutional Convention. Our hope is to amend the State Constitution to improve the transparency and efficiency of local and state government along with reviewing our tax policies and other issues.
On December 30, 2008, I mailed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to Michael Kenyon at the Village offices seeking compensation information for: 1) Michael Kenyon 2) James Cooke 3) Brett Smith and 4) Angela Kenyon. Our group is interested in amending the State Constitution to require better disclosure of the compensation and benefits paid to government employees.
It is important to note that the compensation information I requested has since been released and is disclosed on the home page of your website so it was apparently not as sensitive as the Village management portrayed it.
Village Corporation Counsel Mark McInerney wrote to me on January 7, 2009 that ten additional business days were needed to respond to my request. He stated: “This extension is necessitated by the nature of your request and the need to search a number of documents stretching over several years in order to obtain all (or as much as can be located) of the information you request.”
The request for extra time to respond seemed reasonable so I waited.
In a subsequent letter dated January 26, 2009, Mr. McInerney declined three times to produce any records and/or information. He wrote that, “the Village is not obligated to prepare or provide” a “new public record” which is what he deemed I was seeking. Obviously this was not true since he should have been aware of documents called payroll records which are used to record compensation to personnel.
Although Mr. McInerney indicated in his second letter that I could appeal the rejection to circuit court, I declined in order to avoid having the Village incur any additional legal expenses related to this request.
Looking back, it seems probable that Mr. McInerney, presumably at the direction of the Village, never intended to release the information that was being sought by my FOIA request. Someone did not want residents to know about the 2008 compensation of $207,000 paid to Mike Kenyon and the $149,000 paid to Angela Kenyon. Again, this compensation information has since been revealed with no apparent adverse impact on the environment. Why was it so sensitive in January but not now?
Our group continues to encourage a yes vote for Michigan in November, 2010 to authorize a State Constitutional Convention. Our experience with the Village of Grosse Pointe Shores management supports our call for greater government transparency.
Thank you.
Henry S. Woloson, J.D.
Web site: http://www.energizemichigan.com/index.html