R&R -- records and resignation
The resignation of Salt Lake County's Planning and Development Director Simon Ginn ended a frustrating public-records search that had yielded no explanation to why the planning chief had been placed on paid leave in early December.
The Salt Lake Tribune learned in late-October that something was amiss with the planning chief and filed a records request for all of Ginn's incoming and outgoing e-mails over a three-month period (which amounted to more than 1,200 pages).
We asked for any complaints lodged against him, for his compensation package, for a list of all vacation and comp time he had accrued and for any correspondence between county leaders and Ginn before his hiring.
We got the e-mails and compensation package without a problem (those are public). The county even turned over his vacation and comp time, although attorney T.J. Tsakalos wrote that the information isn't "technically public" but that the nature of the investigation led him to "tip the scale toward disclosure" anyway.
The complaints -- which we still haven't obtained -- proved more difficult, especially after Ginn was placed on paid administrative leave Dec. 1. Here's the written response we received from the county:
"These documents are properly classified at this time as 'protected' under Utah Code Ann. Section 63G-2-305 (9) as they are maintained for enforcement and discipline purposes," Tsakalos wrote. "I further examined them to determine whether the public interest warrants their release at this time. I find their release at this time could reasonably interfere with any investigation, disciplinary or enforcement proceedings or trials that may be conducted. I cannot find their release outweighs their protected status."
But even though we failed to obtain those documents, the county ultimately confirmed that they contained a sexual-harassment allegation that resulted in an investigation shortly before Ginn's resignation.
And the compensation package revealed that the county had previously had high hopes for Ginn, offering him a much more lucrative deal than his predecessor.
It was a sometimes-grueling open-records campaign that resulted in a wider story once Ginn tendered his resignation.
-- JS
The Salt Lake Tribune learned in late-October that something was amiss with the planning chief and filed a records request for all of Ginn's incoming and outgoing e-mails over a three-month period (which amounted to more than 1,200 pages).
We asked for any complaints lodged against him, for his compensation package, for a list of all vacation and comp time he had accrued and for any correspondence between county leaders and Ginn before his hiring.
We got the e-mails and compensation package without a problem (those are public). The county even turned over his vacation and comp time, although attorney T.J. Tsakalos wrote that the information isn't "technically public" but that the nature of the investigation led him to "tip the scale toward disclosure" anyway.
The complaints -- which we still haven't obtained -- proved more difficult, especially after Ginn was placed on paid administrative leave Dec. 1. Here's the written response we received from the county:
"These documents are properly classified at this time as 'protected' under Utah Code Ann. Section 63G-2-305 (9) as they are maintained for enforcement and discipline purposes," Tsakalos wrote. "I further examined them to determine whether the public interest warrants their release at this time. I find their release at this time could reasonably interfere with any investigation, disciplinary or enforcement proceedings or trials that may be conducted. I cannot find their release outweighs their protected status."
But even though we failed to obtain those documents, the county ultimately confirmed that they contained a sexual-harassment allegation that resulted in an investigation shortly before Ginn's resignation.
And the compensation package revealed that the county had previously had high hopes for Ginn, offering him a much more lucrative deal than his predecessor.
It was a sometimes-grueling open-records campaign that resulted in a wider story once Ginn tendered his resignation.
-- JS
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home