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Grand Forks, N.D. (Wikipedia map) |
"A city clerk in Brooks, Minn., declined to provide the records and said she did not have enough time. The City Council, she said, told her 'they would just as soon have me not do it,'" Williams reports. "A clerk in Aneta, N.D., said the City Council decided it would not 'be of any value for us to send them over' because the town is so small."
Stephanie Dassigner, deputy director of the North Dakota League of Cities, said the audit's findings were not surprising, since small-town governments are often short-staffed, which makes wait times longer.
The Herald came up with the idea for the audit last year, after northern Minnesota town Roosevelt wouldn't provide city records to the paper and a city council member allegedly threatened the reporter covering the story. "It prompted the Herald to wonder: Is Roosevelt’s civic disorganization and lack of response to record requests unique? Or is it a widespread problem in towns of similar size?" Williams reports.
Herald publisher Korrie Wenzel said the results of the audit were "unsettling." He told Williams: "In this day and age, when we talk so much about open government and transparency, it’s unbelievable that we are unable to obtain even basic documents from 40 percent of the towns we asked."
The state attorney general's office encouraged the Herald to file a request for an opinion on Aneta and Brooks for not providing records; Wenzel says the paper plans to pursue such action, Williams reports.
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/32xOHEg N.D. paper audited 10 small towns to see how well they responded to information requests; only six complied - Entrepreneur Generations
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