Imagine that, Dr. Homan found a loophole in the new open records law to keep committee decisions secret;
A change to the state open records law in March aimed to make government committees more open to the public. In the Sioux Falls School District, it’s had the opposite effect.
Since the school board changed its policy in response to the new law, the names of committee members and the documents they receive and create have been kept secret.
Remember when she shredded naming suggestions to the new elementary school? Or when she shielded her communications director from taking responsibility for not proof reading a school directory which resulted in organizations like the Boy Scouts of America and the SF Soccer Association to not be allowed to advertise in our schools, costing them thousands of dollars. Homan ain’t budging on it – big freaking surprise!
Homan said the law does not apply to any of the school district’s dozens of committees because they all are created by the superintendent, not by the school board.
We pay Homan’s wages thru our taxes. So she is above us all of sudden? Not so fast.
“That is the kind of thing that irritates legislators,” said Knudson, who suggested additional revisions to the law are in order. “I think it’s going to take a decade to keep pushing on this issue.”
A decade? Huh? Hey Dave, we are not moving the RR tracks or developing Phillips to the Falls, we are conducting openness in government. People have told me that you are a very smart guy, but I’m starting to wonder. It takes only a few minutes to fire Homan. Then we can ask the school board to re-appoint the committees and require them to take minutes and have open meetings. That might take 30 days, tops.
South Dakota Newspaper Association General Manager Dave Bordewyk, who lobbied for the bill, said the original intent was to make all committees subject to open-meetings rules.
If lawmakers understood how school districts would interpret the law, he said, the bill would have contained different language.
“It seems like, obviously, the integrity of the law is not being followed,” Bordewyk said.
“It’s always amazing to me when you think you’ve made a step forward, but you find government officials getting around it,” he added. “I guess I shouldn’t be amazed.”
No, Dave, you should not be amazed. Power lies in controlling the message. Pam is controlling the message by stomping it out. The Argus Endorser‘s ED Board says it best;
Parents and taxpayers should have access to all final reports of all committees that work on the district’s behalf. That’s their right as well as common sense. And the school board itself limits its ability to respond effectively to committees’ work if it doesn’t even see those final reports. That’s common sense, too.