In nearby Fort Atkinson, that city’s municipal manager, Evelyn Johnson, recently resigned after somewhat over a year in her role.
The Daily Union submitted to the City of Fort Atkinson an open records request, to learn more about her departure from a public position. In reply, Fort Atkinson’s city attorney, Chris Rogers, wrote denying the request.
The paper – of whom I have been sometimes critical for tepid coverage of government officials – has wisely and rightly decided to press on with a subsequent request.
Good for them – the people of the city they serve deserve to know the circumstances of their own city manager’s departure. I don’t know what the paper or its residents may learn, but they’ve a right to know.
In similar circumstances in our own city, I would advance a public records request of this kind (although it goes without saying that neither I nor others in Whitewater would want these circumstances here).
Advancing a request this important – residents deserve full and accurate information from their government – is worth supporting and defending, even at law if necessary.
This shouldn’t be – ever – a matter of delay or concealment – people deserve an open accounting of how their representatives, appointed and elected, serve in office.