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| Lockwood Spends $1672.75 For A Pile of Potential "Dirt" |
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| Written by Lynne LaMaster | |
| Friday, 08 August 2008 | |
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Please note, this is not an actual check, it is a visual representation.
Editor's Update:After this article was published, Prescott eNews learned that the Lockwood campaign decided not to pay the full amount of the reproduction costs, but instead chose to 'examine' the documents, and only selected 604 pages that they wanted to obtain. That bill ends up being $151. So she's saving her campaign donors a bucketload of money. But, as for the citizens of Yavapai County? Well, they're stuck with the costs of fulfilling the request for information.
About a week and a half ago, Attorney Gil Shaw, acting on behalf of Georgene Lockwood, Candidate for Yavapai County Supervisor, District 1, put in a request for documents. A lot of documents, as it turns out. Here's his letter:
July 28, 2008 Very Truly Yours,
Gil Shaw Reply to Attorney Gil Shaw from Yavapai County Attorney Jack H. FieldsWell, today, Attorney Shaw received his response - and a bill. You see, Julie Ayers sent Prescott eNews an email which explained the how the charges were incurred, "It is our policy to charge $.25 for each copy made in response to a public records request when it is not for a commercial purpose, such as this one, which is intended to cover all costs associated with the request."
August 7, 2008 In response to your request, 6691 pages of documents have been produced. The cost of reproduction was $1,672.75. You may pick up the documents at the Prescott office of the Board of Supervisors, 1015 Fair Street, on payment of the reproduction costs. Please make the reproduction costs payable to the Yavapai County Treasurer. If you wish to inspect the documents, please make call 771-3200 to arrange an inspection time. Please contact me if you have any questions. Sincerely,
Jack H. Fields In Perspective...To put the $1672.75 in perspective, it's interesting to look at how much money Lockwood has received in donations. From January 1, 2008 - May 31, 2008, she took in $10,879 in contributions from individuals. The vast majority of all the contributions were from local donors, which is terrific. And so, Lockwood spent approximately 15.37% of the amount those donations, which were contributed by local, individual citizens for - what purpose? A chance to dig up dirt? An opportunity to find some obscure thing that her opponent Carol Springer might have supported in her role as the Yavapai County representative to the County Supervisor's Association? This brings a few questions to my mind: 1) It's her money, and she can spend it however she wants. But, since the charges that Lockwood has made regarding the sales tax increase have already been discredited, is she now simply on a fishing expedition for more baseless charges? 2) Are these the kind of fiscal decisions, that Lockwood will bring to Yavapai County if she is elected? Will she promise to spend our tax dollars more wisely than she spends her campaign donations? 3) Doesn't Lockwood have anything else to offer the people of Yavapai County beyond this single issue?
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Comments (7)
  written by Williamson Valley Resident, August 09, 2008
You are wrong about her issues. She has 2. Take down the current Supervisor by hook or by crook and Willaimson Valley Road.
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written by Concerned Taxpayer, August 09, 2008
I have a proposition for Ms. Lockwood. In all fairness, Ms. Lockwood should publicly disclose every piece of her electronic messages and internal communication, as well as that of her staff, in the same fashion for which she is requiring the government of Yavapai County to do.
Yes, Ms. Lockwood legally paid .25 cents per copy for that information, however, the amount paid did not even come close to the hourly wage that is being required of the vast amount of Yavapai County staff to fulfill such a lengthy and daunting request. It would be quite interesting if Yavapai County staff actually tallied the amount of time it took to produce for Ms. Lockwood and then send her a bill to compensate for what the taxpayers of Yavapai County paid for in those wages. I am quite certain that those wages could have been spent on much more productive tasks for the residents of Yavapai County. Is this reckless fashion of taxpayer money the course of action for which Ms. Lockwood will continually conduct herself if she is elected? As a taxpayer I cannot begin to express my disappointment with what she required Yavapai County staff to do all in an attempt to twist around reality for her own personal gain. I do not believe Ms. Lockwood is truly concerned to be in touch with the constituents she claims to care for. How disheartening is that? report abuse
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Votes: +2
written by Karyl, August 09, 2008
Good on Lockwood and Mr. Shaw. it is about time someone stood up to the practices that our going on in this county. What have you people got to hide? It is time to step up to the plate county. Perhpas all of your little secrets will start coming out and they should. You are the most defensive group of people I have ever seen. Those who have things to hide are those who are always casting stones at those who want the truth. It is truly time for change. The current supervisors brought this on themselves and credit is given to those who want to know the truth. Remember these representatives work for us and from what I have seen there is only one in office who truly cares about what the citizens want. The fact that 3 people are entrusted with decisions for a growing county is in itself nuts.
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written by June, August 10, 2008
The voters elected Springer. When you insult her you insult us.
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written by Virginia Meyers, August 13, 2008
If the county is so smart, they would have made the documents available for review, had Lockwood separate all the docs she was interested in, copied those and gave them to her, thereby keeping a record of the specific issues and communications she was focusing on. Duh.
And the defense for wasting taxpayer dollars doesn't carry much weight. Many of these documents are old e-mails printed off back-up tapes kept by the IT department. Some individuals may have to hunt through files to find some tings, but, hey, THAT is part of their jobs, providing information to the public. If you run a clean government you have nothing to hide, your records should ALWAYS be in such an oder so that if you receive a public information request (or a court order), you can respond to it efficiently and completely. What have they got to hide? report abuse
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written by IrateTaxpayer, August 15, 2008
If Lockwood was so smart, she would have reviewed the documents, separated all the docs she was interested in, asked for those to be copied.
By not taking responsibility to act in this manner she wasted taxpayer dollars County employees had to hunt through files to find some things, which maybe part of their jobs, but doing so for one individual requires that the individual pay for the hunting. Lockwood did not pay for all the documents she requested. The County (our tax dollars) paid for that. Where is the value for our money? Obviously we have a clean government with nothing to hide and records are in order because when Lockwood provided a public information request it was responded to efficiently and completely. What was hidden? Are you angry because you got what you asked for, even though you only paid for 10% of the bill and left the taxpayers stuck with the other $1,500. Or are you angry that you didn't get what you paid for- incriminating information? report abuse
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