After a York City School Board committee meeting a few weeks ago, education reporter Nickie Dobo was in a conversation with board members Hiawatha Powell and Beverly Atwater. They mentioned a trip to San Diego to attend a national conference.
Good reporters keep an eye on how government spends public money, so she got curious and got four of the five board members' expense receipts through the right-to-know law. Financial records of public institutions have always been public records, so, put in its simplest terms, people can keep track of where their tax money is going.
Nickie found out that board members spent almost $2,000 just on meals and cab fare. The total bill for the trip will rise significantly, because those expense reports did not include air fare, hotels or the conference registration fee. (Read the Daily Record/Sunday News' editorial on the spending here.)
The school board is now reviewing those expenses before deciding whether to approve them. To take a look at them yourself, visit our Full Disclosure open records site and scroll down to "Reading Room."
During discussion of the matter at Wednesday's board meeting, former board member Michael Breeland* said he was upset the board made the receipts public. It should have been handled internally, he said.
But the open records law exists to allow people to inspect such records as a way of holding public officials accountable, which is what occurred in this case. And the law acts as a way of ensuring that public officials do handle these issues. If the public has no oversight, it would be easy for a public body to ignore such issues.
*Breeland's first name was incorrect in an earlier version of this post. --SB
Good reporters keep an eye on how government spends public money, so she got curious and got four of the five board members' expense receipts through the right-to-know law. Financial records of public institutions have always been public records, so, put in its simplest terms, people can keep track of where their tax money is going.
Nickie found out that board members spent almost $2,000 just on meals and cab fare. The total bill for the trip will rise significantly, because those expense reports did not include air fare, hotels or the conference registration fee. (Read the Daily Record/Sunday News' editorial on the spending here.)
The school board is now reviewing those expenses before deciding whether to approve them. To take a look at them yourself, visit our Full Disclosure open records site and scroll down to "Reading Room."
During discussion of the matter at Wednesday's board meeting, former board member Michael Breeland* said he was upset the board made the receipts public. It should have been handled internally, he said.
But the open records law exists to allow people to inspect such records as a way of holding public officials accountable, which is what occurred in this case. And the law acts as a way of ensuring that public officials do handle these issues. If the public has no oversight, it would be easy for a public body to ignore such issues.
*Breeland's first name was incorrect in an earlier version of this post. --SB
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