Seeking government transparency can be costly.
Using the state’s public-records law, The Clarion-Ledger in February asked Gov. Haley Barbour’s office to produce four days’ worth of e-mails from Barbour’s staff of about 40 people. The governor’s office replied on March 27 with a cost estimate of $14,170.48.
Leslie Graves, president of the Wisconsin-based Lucy Burns Institute, which promotes open government issues, said that is by far the highest dollar figure she has heard for such a request.
“You win,” she said, adding that in an age of increasing technological ease, Barbour’s response to the request was “prehistoric.”
The estimate includes $7,500 to hire private attorneys to review the e-mails for exempted material, $5,400 to bring in an out-of-town computer consultant, nearly $800 for staff from the Department of Finance and Administration’s Office of Information Technology to collect the messages, and just under $500 for the governor’s press secretary to give them a final review.
Magnolia Tribune
