Subject: Fwd: PRO petition concerning US09/10-7
To: Peter Gilkey <gilkey@uoregon.edu> 
From: Bill Harbaugh <wtharbaugh@gmail.com> 
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:44:45 

yes, please post this too, and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - or
whatever it is you celebrate when it's not Burns Night.

Bill Harbaugh 

Subject: PRO petition concerning US09/10-7

To: john.kroger@state.or.us, Kron Michael C
<michael.c.kron@doj.state.or.us>


From: Bill Harbaugh <wtharbaugh@gmail.com>

Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:42:46

Dear Attorney General Kroger:

This is a petition asking you to order UO General Counsel Melinda Grier
to turn over supporting evidence for her  Memo concerning US09/10-7. A
copy of that memo is attached. This memo was prepared by Ms Grier in
response to my motion to the UO Senate calling for the establishment of a
University Transparency Committee to review public records requests to UO
by UO faculty and staff, with the objective of improving access to these
records and promoting a more open, transparent, and trusting relationship
between the faculty and the administration. 

In her memo Ms Grier makes a number of statements about the cost to UO of
having to respond to public records requests and petitions, before
arriving at a $67,000 total. The counterargument is that her estimates are
largely based on the cost of *not* responding to public records requests.
Specifically, it seems that at least 1/2 the costs are  DOJ hourly charges
for responding to petitions to the DOJ, which are typically filed only
after excessive delays or refusals to grant fee waivers. I also believe
that Ms Grier may have included in her estimate the costs of requests and
petitions related to requests for documents used in the ethics
investigations of Ms Grier by the Oregon Bar, and by David Leith of your
office.

I need these supporting documents to prepare for a discussion of my UO
Senate transparency motion and for the State DOJ hearings, both in early
Feb. If the future resembles the past I expect that there may be a need
for several more iterations of public records requests, if I am to be well
prepared for these public discussions. Therefore time is of the essence.

At my request, on 11/28 UO Senate President Peter Gilkey made a PR
request (below) to Ms Grier on my behalf, and then promptly paid Doug
Park, the UO Assistant Counsel in charge of PR requests, for the
documents. On 12/17, concerned about the delay, I subsequently requested
the same documents from Mr Park directly.

It's now been more than three weeks since the original request, and I
still have not received the documents. According to President Gilkey, they
were sitting in a folder on Ms Grier's desk when he made the original
request. The charge for these documents was only $14.79 - clearly there is
nothing difficult about this request. 

Given this, it is difficult for me to understand the reasons for this
extraordinary delay. In an effort to get an explanation for the holdup -
and perhaps save UO from having to pay the DOJ ~$1200 to respond to a
petition for $14.79 worth of documents, I both emailed and called Mr Park
to ask for the reasons behind the delay. He has not responded.

Given this, I reluctantly petition you and ask you to order Doug Park and
Melinda Grier to produce the requested documentation without further
delay. My hope is that this notice of petition will encourage them to
forward the documents promptly and make this petition moot, saving UO
~$1200. With that and the holiday season in mind - I authorize a short
extension of the usual 7 day response period, until 12/31.

Bill Harbaugh
http://harbaugh.uoregon.edu

Begin forwarded message:

 From: Bill Harbaugh 
 Date: Dec 20, 2009 6:39:32 PST
 To: doug park 
  Subject: Fwd: Concerning US09/10-7

 Hi Doug - 

 As you know on 11/28 Peter Gilkey made the PR request below to your
office on my behalf, and then promptly paid you for the documents. (I
subsequently requested the same documents from you directly.)  

It's now been more than three weeks and I still have received these
documents from you. According to Peter, they were sitting in a folder on
Melinda's desk when he made the request.   

 As you know I need these documents to prepare for a discussion of my UO
Senate transparency motion and for the State DOJ hearings, both in early
Feb. I expect that there may be a need for several more iterations of
requests to be well prepared for these events.  

 Given this, I'd appreciate it if you could provide the
documents by Tu afternoon, or failing that provide an explanation for why
this delay is reasonable, given that the documents are already collected
and given the obvious public interest in what they will show.  

 As you know, my next recourse under the law is to petition the DOJ and ask
Attorney General Kroger to order you to provide the documents. My estimate
is that this PRO process will cost UO about $1200 in billed DOJ time and
another $1000 of your own time. I certainly don't want to impose that
cost  on our university, and I hope you don't either.   

 Thanks for your prompt assistance,  

 Bill Harbaugh