$1,200 for copies? At 16 cents per copy (which includes folding!) that comes to a request for 7,500 copies by Councilman Weiner. Did the Councilman really request 7,500 copies? Probably not.
The County, of course, charges 50 cents per copy more than three times the cost of the private sector. So, did the Councilman request 2,500 copies? Let’s go with 2,500 copies – admittedly a lot, but certainly not outside the purview of the Legislative Branch of government.
Of course, the county’s real marginal cost per copy will be closer to 2 cents per copy because no employee is going to be laid off or work overtime due to the existence or non-existence of the Councilman’s request (I operate high speed copiers in my business and am pretty familiar with the operating costs) which brings the marginal cost down to $50.
If Councilman Weiner asked to have 2,500 copies made, the marginal increase in cost to New Castle County is $50. So, why the big beef?
Councilman Weiner is asking members of the County Executive branch to actually work and provide a Councilman with information about County operations. This is unusual for the County because it has been able to do pretty much what it wanted to do for a long time. Democrats enjoy a 11-2 majority on County Council, and every other Countywide position is in Democrat hands. The phrase absolute power corrupts absolutely comes to mind. How dare an elected Councilman from the minority party question the actions of the Democrats who control the County.
The County Executive has stated that this is a mountain out of a mole hill, and I agree. However, it was the County Administration that created the hill/mountain. For a marginal cost of 50 bucks, just make the copies and be quiet.
As for Councilman Smiley who when asked his position on the FOIA requirement has written:
The Department will make the determination possibly after consultation with the Law Department. I see no way this will impede a Councilmember’s ability to represent.
It may impact an elected individual who wants to utilize their position to take advantage of Government resources to provide information for free to others so that they can try to build a case to sue the very Government/taxpayers that are paying for the research and dissemination of the information.
What Councilman Smiley has described is called “Constituent Service”. When constituents (aka taxpayers) contact their elected legislator to inquire about the Executive Branch, the legislator should respond and get the information. Clearly, Councilman Smiley feels differently. He prefers to defer to the lawyers in the Executive Branch. It is always good to have independently minded folks serving in government. I’ll close with Councilman Smiley’s closing comments to the inquiry:
This is all I have to say on this matter as I have other things to focus on.
Likely something other than constituent service. Don’t bother him, he’s busy.
Seems that Smiley has forgotten (or possibly never knew) that the job of an elected official is to represent the citizens NOT cover the behinds of others in government.
Abolish county government.
Do we know what kinds of documents we are talking about? I was unclear if we were talking about actual legal-sized documents or if we were talking about architectural drawings.
It seems to me that making the standard sized documents (and requiring everything that can be submitted in standard sizes is) available online for constituents to peruse and print out for themselves.
Arch drawings, which I image the county gets a lot of, pose some challenges that I’m not sure how to address.
Actually, engineering drawings, cad drawings, architect drawings have been digital for years. The wide-format EPSON &/or HP ink jets are used for output (they’re also used in commercial printing for proofing and signature layouts). So, any type of files could be sent digitally to interested citizens and printed at any number of quick print companies (a service I don’t provide) for less than the County charges.