I sent Carroll Township's right-to-know officer an e-mail with some questions raised by its response to the state's open records office, which asked about the township's denial of an RTK request for development plans.
Josephine Patton said this morning that the township would have no comment at this time. The township's official correspondence, for now, speaks on the matter. That correspondence is linked to in previous posts about the RTK request, the township's denial and a residents' group's appeal.
The township's response to the open records office included its willingness to share a couple of documents, but its letter prompted some questions. Here's what I had asked Patton (note -- these questions will make more sense if you read the previous posts and comments first, and look at the linked-to correspondence):
Josephine Patton said this morning that the township would have no comment at this time. The township's official correspondence, for now, speaks on the matter. That correspondence is linked to in previous posts about the RTK request, the township's denial and a residents' group's appeal.
The township's response to the open records office included its willingness to share a couple of documents, but its letter prompted some questions. Here's what I had asked Patton (note -- these questions will make more sense if you read the previous posts and comments first, and look at the linked-to correspondence):
- Why does the township's letter/affidavit note that as of a date in April, the requested documents had not been received by the township?
- Does the township have the documents in question, and is saying only that it had not received them by the date in the requester's letter; or does the township not yet have the documents in question?
- If the documents had not been received by the township as of that date, as established in the agreement between the township and the developer, does that mean the developer has missed its deadline; and if so, will the township reject the plans because of the missed deadlines? If not, have new deadlines been set, and if so, what are they?
- The township's letter says it will allow CCSG to view two stormwater management reports that the township maintains are not public as per the settlement agreement. Is the township then breaking the terms of the settlement agreement, and if so, does that relieve the developer of having to adhere to the terms of the agreement? Or did the developer agree to allow the township to make those documents public?
- Also, the township's letter notes it will make the reports
available to the requester. Are those reports also available to anyone
for viewing/copying under the right-to-know law?
I went to Carroll Township this am to review the stormwater management reports. These 2 reports are in 4 inch binders outlining all the information on Pre and Post development stormwater management. I filled out another act100 and received a copy of the Stormwater Management Summary. This summary is 4 pages and outlines goals and objectives.
They understood that the original 7/10/09 RTK request was based on the terms of the Feb 9, 09 Negotiation agreement and April 14, 2009 in 3a. As to when these documents were to be available.
AT this same time we submitted our RTK request the Township was in negotiations about a new time line and new dates were being negotiated. New time line has been agreed to, BUT no one knows if this new time line that is part of the Negations should be made available to us.
I think any revised time line should be public and reports submitted by dates agreed to should be public at that time.
The date of November 2 2009 was told to us, as noted in Deana’s prior post. This is not documented and can only be considered from a good source.
I think the basic point is that a Township should never enter into a Nondisclosure or Confidential with any developer. I understand that negotiations are just that negotiations but when there’s a time line involved that specifies by date when documents are to available then they become public knowledge.
So new time line should be available with dates for submittal of documents and those documents should be available to the public. That way we don’t have to wait till November 2 (unofficial date) to get all documents and have a quick review before final approval.
Does any of this make sense?
Brad CCSG