It seems that certain state officials are finding a new means of discouraging Louisiana citizens from seeking information about the way the public’s business is being conducted. This new tactic is nothing less than a form of official harassment that is both chilling and dangerous.
Transparency and accountability in government are currently hot news topics. Last week (May 26), a local Baton Rouge group, Leaders with Vision, held a lunch meeting and discussion with the theme, “Are Louisiana Sunshine Laws adequate in today’s 21st Century World?” Participants included Sen. Dan Claitor; Rep. Dee Richard; Former Baton Rouge Advocate Executive Editor and transparency advocate Carl Redman and LouisianaVoice Editor Tom Aswell.
Both the state and the federal government recognize the need for transparency in the democratic process. Louisiana passed the Louisiana Public Records Act, also known as Louisiana’s Sunshine Law, in 1940 – more than 25 years before President Lyndon Johnson signed the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 1966. Anyone can request public records and the purpose of the request does not need to be stated. In fact, the custodian of the record is not allowed to ask the purpose. The major exemptions are pending criminal litigation; juvenile status offenders; sexual offense victims; security procedures; trade secrets; and some public employee information.
Unfortunately, not everyone in government agrees with the concept of transparency and accountability. We have public officials suing constituents in an obvious effort to prevent them from accessing public records. Two recent examples follow.
On May 27, A LouisianaVoice REPORT revealed that several judges in the 4th Judicial Circuit Court filed a lawsuit against The Ouachita Citizen and Publisher Sam Hanna, Jr to prevent the publication from seeking public records to which they were legally entitled. In this case, judges are suing a publication to prevent them from accessing public records concerning the court operation and their presumably dirty laundry.
Now we find that closer to home, John White has likewise filed a LAWSUIT against Mike Deshotels and Dr. James Finney over public record requests that they made to the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) – most likely because they have hit a nerve.
On May 31, 2016, Dr. James Finney detailed the history of the suits in a letter to the Governor, John White, the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) members, and various state staff how the lawsuit came about:
As you may recall, I sent you an email March 12 (attached below) describing the status of several pending record requests that I had placed with John White and the Department of Education. I also mentioned the existence of a lawsuit (Finney vs White, 6395333, attached). That lawsuit, which was filed May 22, 2015, was set for trial in late April.
However, on April 11, Mr. White’s attorney requested and was granted a continuance, presumably to become better prepared for trial and to resolve a scheduling conflict with the Department’s sole witness. Rather than prepare for trial, however, it seems that Mr. White instead instructed his attorney to file two lawsuits against me which appear to be groundless, unnecessary, and against the public interest. Meanwhile, Mr. White and his staff have made no effort to address the 35 pending requests which are subject of my lawsuit.
The first new lawsuit (White vs Finney, 647827, attached) addresses five requests I made in fall 2015, five that I made in February of this year, and one that I made in March. In the lawsuit, Mr. White apparently is asking the judge to create special conditions on Louisiana’s public records law. It seems that, for whatever reason, Mr. White is bending over backward to make sure the public has no idea what statistical distributions LEAP, iLEAP, or EOC test scores follow. Are they symmetric? Skewed? Bimodal? Uniform? Nor does he, it seems, wish the public to have any means of verifying that School or District Performance Scores have been fairly and accurately calculated.
The second new lawsuit (White vs Deshotels et al, 647953, attached) attempts to reverse favorable judgments Mr. Deshotels received in two prior lawsuits, and apply that reversal (which seems unlikely given that the 19th JDC is not an appellate court) to a subsequent request by Mr. Deshotels and also to one of my requests. He seeks to use Mr. Deshotels and I as pawns, and cost us additional time and money, to establish a data-suppression policy that was already soundly rejected at court.
I have repeatedly requested meetings with Mr. White and/or his staff to work out arrangements that allow the public to have access to important public records without compromising student privacy nor causing the Department undue burden. I have consistently been rebuffed. And now we’re tangled in litigation in three different divisions of the local district court.
Most of my requests to date, and all that are subject to litigation thus far, could be collected into the following six categories. I trust you would consider these all to be important and of potential public interest:
- calculation details regarding Value-Added Modeling as performed by the Department
- voucher programs’ exact enrollments and costs, and demographics of voucher students
- test-score distributions and technical reports
- details of School and District Performance Score calculations adequate to verify accuracy and credibility
- charter schools’ enrollments, charters and leases, and other information
- exact enrollment numbers with no more suppression than is absolutely required to protect the anonymity of an individual student
I urge you as a body to ask Mr. White to defend his position regarding data secrecy, and his preference for litigation over useful dialogue. Is the department in service to the public, or to test-creators, charter networks and private schools? Have the school grades and Value-Added measures been calculated fairly? How will we ever know? Is Southern politeness more important than democracy? Is it appropriate to sue citizens rather than responding properly to public record requests? Please ponder those questions carefully, and provide the appropriate guidance to the Superintendent who is employed at your pleasure.
Thank you.
Dr. James Finney
As one might expect, the suits against Deshotels and Finney are funded by you, the taxpayer, as the LDOE has brought the suit using LDOE funds. Deshotels and Finney are on their own when it comes to legal fees related to these suits. Just to be clear: You are covering the costs for John White to sue private citizens to prevent them from exercising their constitutional rights.
Of course, Deshotels and Dr. Finney intend to pursue the suit in the courts, rather than ask for a dismissal, to press forward on their requests to this public information that is critical to determining the impact of various policies on our children’s education and the efficacy of the charter experiment in Louisiana. (Remember the last time the government experimented in the south? It happened at Tuskegee.)
As Mercedes Schneider recently noted in her blog deutsch29, “Suing private citizens over public record requests is a new low for an already sorry excuse of a state superintendent. However, it seems that with White, no low is too low.” https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2016/05/31/la-superintendent-john-white-sues-citizens-who-made-public-records-requests/
The use of virtually unlimited financial and legal resources (at taxpayer expense, no less) to beat down citizens with limited funds to fight back poses an unprecedented and dangerous threat to the very checks and balances upon which our government is founded.
When will Governor Edwards tire of this excuse for a superintendent and encourage the BESE board to bring John White’s tenure up for a vote? Let’s get the BESE members on record as to whether they stand for Louisiana’s children or for the out-of-state interests that bought their seats. Let’s decide, once and for all, if BESE stands for accountability or for secrecy.
For Edwards, the Legislature, and BESE to sit back and do nothing about this infringement upon the public’s right to know should be seen as an endorsement of clandestine activity worthy only of our distrust and fear.
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.” (Thomas Jefferson)
Public information should not be grounds for a lawsuit…unless it was published with false information. Or are our laws worthless?
Are our laws worthless? So far not only are our laws not enforced, which makes them worthless, our lawmakers are rapidly proving themselves to be worthless also. Because a politician promises to help, doesn’t make him an honorable man. It only means he has a good ‘delivery’ technique. Why do Louisiana people keep voting these crooks and thugs to office?
State laws not being enforced…CYA politicians with way too much power…complacent citizens. Thank you, Tom Aswell, for occasionally putting a dent in the Louisiana madness. I’m proud of you.
Great post, Tom. I’m sure you saw the feature that Chris Nakamoto did on Channel 2’s news yesterday on the Finney/Deshotels suit.
Channel 2 showed across the screen several prior DOE suits, and the first one had a sticky note attached showing a $6,400 cost to resolve. There in the upper-left corner listed as Plaintiff was none other than “Tom Aswell.”
Congratulations on being about the only person I know of to prevail in such a suit! I know you’ve nevertheless had your share of frsutrations, including your present suit still awaiting a decision by the First Circuit.
I struck out on ALL of my suits, including my own First Circuit case in which the evidence was overwhelming that the Auctioneer’s Licensing Board violated the Open Meetins Law. The First Circuit readily admitted in its decision that they did, but let them slide on assesing it could not establish they did so “knowlingly and wilfully.” What a line of crap! The file was replete with me fighting them over this issue for years! Nevertheless, one of Caldwell’s bonehead Assistant Attorney General’s, Michael Vallen, stated on video during the hearing the EXACT OPPOSITE of what Louisiana’s Open Meetings Laws state! Consequently, they argued that “The AG’s Office said we could do this!”
So, I’m done filing suits, but not before conficted felon Larry S. Bankston obtained over $100,000 defending against my suits for which the MAXIMUM penalty was $100 per board member for the violations.
Yes, our public records and open meetings statutes are a joke, and don’t get me started on 19th JDC judges’ willingness to even try to enforce the weak statutes Louisiana has on those matters!
Why do we destroy public education? Because that is where the money is (Willie Sutton), Why do we destroy the Veterans Admininstration? Because that is where the money is, Why do we destroy any semblance of public health care? Insurance lobby, that is where the money is. Why do we elect crooks and thugs to office, because that is where the money is. Ask the republican party and Donald Trump.
Attempting to use the courts as a cudgel against citizens is nothing short of a slide toward tyranny and dictatorship and must be stopped at once. The Louisiana Supreme Court should discipline the judges of the Fourth JDC and BESE should discipline John White – immediately and severely – for violating the First Amendment rights of citizens and member of the press.
Withholding valid public information flies in the face of all we hold dear as an open society and democratic republic (which has nothing to do with partisan politics). These tactics by John White and judges to suppress freedom of the press and the people’s right to know are very dangerous to our constitutional rights and are prima facie evidence of something serious they want to remain hidden.
What is requested, who is requesting, political affiliation, etc., etc. should not matter when a citizen requests public information.
Having been on the receiving end of public records requests involving literally thousands of pages of records, I know full well how such a request can play havoc with an agency’s workflow. But public servants are obligated to provide appropriate information when requested, within reasonable time frames, PERIOD. During my almost three decades of state service, always in PUBLIC information, I could count on one hand the number of public records filed on my agencies during the first 20 years. Then came the jindal years, where such requests became a regular, often weekly occurrence. Some requestors’ goal was harassment, true, but we still had to comply and we did. If anyone had suggested filing a lawsuit against citizens in an attempt to stifle the public’s right to know, I suspect there would have been a respectful mutiny by staff. When you have nothing to hide, you provide the information. End of story.
If we do not put an immediate end to public officials’ attempts to strongarm the public, using scarce public funds, no less, we will deserve the government we get, and it won’t be pretty. Notice the word “public” in that sentence? Where do the words “tyrant,” “dictator,” and “despot” fit in? We are on notice, people (thank you, Tom) – now it’s up to us to make it clear to our ELECTED officials that we will not tolerate dictatorship. Even in Louisiana, the northernmost bastion of Caribbean/Latin American culture. It’s past time we start acting like citizens of the USA and get passionate about freedom, instead of just, you know…
Stated perfectly, Earthmother, ESPECIALLY the portion about it not mattering what one’s political philosophy is!! The most liberal person out there has the SAME right to PUBLIC records as the most conservative person out there!!
Yes, the bottom line is there is ALWAYS something to hide. The Executive Director of the Auctioneer Licensing Board has extensively engaged in payroll fraud, and the board members actively worked to cover it all up. Just listen to this 30-second audio clip of her GUIDING THE BOARD MEMBERS on how they can best avoid public records request from me:
Hell, you even hear one of the board members say, “Well, he’s not here,” in referencing me.
As Tom mentioned, it’s against the law to even ask “Why?” Nevertheless, just listen to this except from an LALB meeting:
[audio src="http://www.auctioneer-la.org/8KC_WonderPLans.mp3" /]
JBE has hitched his wagon to one HELL of a crew for the next four years entailing the Auctioneer Licensing Board, and I’ll be more than happy to gradually feed out to the public all the damming material (including recent evidence of his DIRECT involvement in ousting the person on the audio above who knows ALL of the LALB’s hidden skeletons to appease the good ‘ole boy network). Hang on folks and fasten your seatbelts! The pilot is warning us of MAJOR turbulence the plane of Louisiana citizens is about to approach!
Again, perfectly, stated, Earthmother!
Sorry about messing up the audio link above entailing board members demanding to know WHY Rev. Phillips wanted to obtain travel vouchers. Here’s that URL: http://www.auctioneer-la.org/8KC_WonderPLans.mp3
Tom, that story is incredible. Both teacher and parents should be rebelling and filling the email and VM boxes for these jerks. Iâm not an attorney, but would be willing to defend myself ProSe in that situation. My sense is that a personal stand would get the most attention. The last time I represented myself and filed a counter-suit the judge told me publically that what the plaintiffsâ attorney did was sufficient to allow me to sue him personally. He also issued a show cause order to the guy. Of course he subtly recommended that I consider carefully before acting. Plaintiff dropped the suit.
I posted the link from Louisiana Voice on the LDOE website. https://www.facebook.com/LaEducation/ Thought you might want to view later. The one I attached has date / time in UR corner. I suspect that my post might disappear and that would be good for your follow-up on that topic.
One thing for certain is that no one in Texas could get away with anything counter to the Texas Public Information Act. I even learned how to get personal calendars and pilot flight logs. I simply hinted that if the paper calendar or logbook was purchased with government funds it was public. AG agreed. Here, an organization is not allowed to outright deny that a record is exempt. The entity must ask for an AG ruling. Failing to respond to a request within 15 working days is flagged and often results in an immediate lawsuit by the AG. When I was active, over 90% of the rulings were in my favor; some partially.
Keep having fun!
Bob Mhoon
From: Louisiana Voice
Reply-To: Louisiana Voice
Date: Thursday, June 2, 2016 at 7:53 AM
To: Bob Mhoon
Subject: [New post] John White follows Ouachita judges in suing Baton Rouge pair over access to LDOE public records; is this a new trend?
tomaswell posted: ” It seems that certain state officials are finding a new means of discouraging Louisiana citizens from seeking information about the way the publicâs business is being conducted. This new tactic is nothing less than a form of official harassmen”
GREAT post entailing Texas. I won’t go into detail, but a public records request was denied by a state agency in Texas. The reason given?: “It may embarrass the person who filed a complaint with our agency.”
Well, in Texas, ALL public record request denials MUST be reviewed by the AG. When that particular denial was reviewed, the AG wasted no time overruling the state agency, and the records were turned over immediately. It QUICKLY became obvious what the REAL reason for the denial was. All I’ll say is collusion was involved in the subject matter of the request.
Regarding Tom’s request for LSP records, I’m willing to wager that involves internal embarrassment to Edmonson. That, in turn, spills over to Gov. Edwards, who simply is NOT going to fire Edmonson and thereby alienate the LSA. It will NEVER happen absent criminal charges being filed against Edmonson AND him being convicted. Even if Edmonson were indicted tomorrow, the trial would extend out beyond 2019.
We need Texas’ law wherein all public records request denials MUST be reviewed by the AG’s Office!! Even under Caldwell, the one person he had in that office whom I had tremendous respect for was Emalie Boyce, who headed the areas of public records and open meetings. If these denials had to be reviewed by her, I have confidence that she would do the right thing because I have never found her to be anything but totally professional and knowledgeable. It’s why I praised her in my 12/5 outgoing “unique tribute” to AG Buddy Caldwell in recommending her being the ONLY Assistant AG I would recommend retaining!
Clarify for me please Tom.
•Edwards cannot do anything alone to send White along his way out of the state correct?
•So, he has to depend on the BESE board to attempt to do something?
•Are all of the BESE board members elected or are any appointed by the guv? (I have no idea about the total makeup of the Board)
•If any of the members are appointed and were appointed by Jindal, can Edwards get rid of the appointees?
Is it totally up to the BESE Board and the lege to get rid of him? I’m just trying to understand how much Edwards can do to assist in getting White to go ahead and put the For Sale sign on his house and call the movers.
Fred, Barry Irwin (Council for a Better Louisiana) did a GREAT job of outlining BESE’s composition and what’s required for BESE to fire White. I wish I still had that video, but I don’t. Let me give the “quick and dirty answers” to your questions as he explained it (as you no doubt know, Irwin has championed the cause of Common Core and is a staunch John White supporter):
Q 1:
Only to the extent of his ability to appoint anti-White members, of which he only has the authority to appiont three out of 11 members. Edwards appointed all three earlier this year and all are anti-White.
Q 2:
Yes. It takes 8 members of the BESE Board (2/3) to fire White.
Q 3:
8 BESE members are elected and 3 are appointed:
http://bese.louisiana.gov/about-bese/bese-members.
Q 4:
Yes, but that’s already been done (Edwards has made his three appointments). Of the eight elected BESE members, 7 are strong pro-common-core backers and VERY, VERY unlikely to support any attempt to fire White. The anti common-core voters, for all their yelling and screaming, failed to show up and support anti-common-core candidates at the voting booth (perhaps as a result of abysmal participation on their parts in general — perhaps due to Vitter’s distasteful past — at least in their view).
So, while it would take a working coalition of 8 BESE members to fire White, the reality is only 4 (Edwards’ appointments and the one member elected who is NOT pro-common core) would be inclined to do so. Getting 4 more to jump on board will be next to impossible!
That’s why White could feel so emboldened to do what he did. Does anyone really think he would do so blindly without the full knowledge his BESE Membership would “have his back?”
Have to cut Edwards some slack on this one. He did all he could do. Next opportunity for change: October of 2019 (but of course, Edwards, himself is also up for re-election and, in my own opinion, is going to do down in flames).
Tom can certainly correct anything above that isn’t accurate, but I can tell you Barry Irwin was supremely confident the BESE votes aren’t remotely there to fire White, and that was BEFORE the election, and White’s hand was only strengthened by the election results last October & November.
Thanks Robert. As you stated, it sounds as if Edwards has done what he could do in this situation so I’ll give him a break.
October of 2019 (but of course, Edwards, himself is also up for re-election and, in my own opinion, is going to do down in flames).
Lots of time between now and Oct. ’19 and who knows how or what things will happen between now and then.
You are correct. Edwards can only lobby BESE. Most of the BESE members are elected and those appointed were Jindal plants. The Legislature likewise can only lean on BESE but legally can do nothing.
So called “Public Servants”, such as this cretin, are nothing short of an embarrassment to both civil servants (like me) and the general public whom we purportedly SERVE. Such arrogance and condescension seems to be the norm now. His arse should be summarily bounced out onto the street. And yes, I hope he reads this. If there’s any problem with my comments, I’m easy to find.
Love,
b
Couldn’t the Governor and the Legislature initiate investigations into White’s activities through their regular oversight mechanisms?
Probably not. His filing the lawsuit is not illegal, nor could it be considered malfeasance. The OIG (which answers to the governor) could investigate if there was any illegality to investigate. The only power the Legislature would have would be through the Legislative Auditor’s Office which, again would have no authority of White’s filing the lawsuit.
Here is a story on White’s official response to all the criticism if anyone wants to read it:
http://thehayride.com/2016/06/exclusive-john-white-responds-to-allegations-of-data-suppression/
I would note that, on the Channel 2 Investigative Report by Nakamoto, Finney was quoted as saying, “I have no interest in personally identifiable information.”
Here’s the link for the Channel 2 Investigative Report (including seeing that “Tom Aswell” plaintiff suit with the $6,300 sticky note resolution figure:
http://www.wbrz.com/news/department-of-education-sues-citizens-who-file-public-records-requests/
Very interesting that John White “reached out” to The Hayride after its post about the DOE lawsuit, but he apparently did not contact Tom Aswell after the LouisianaVoice Post. Nuff said.
Freedom of Information Act requests to school systems do not go unpunished in this state. Ask private Citizens.
Correspondence among “educators” and of the “email” variety is revealing.
A trend may be found regarding the strategic use of students for improved school performance scores, particularly by students of said “educators.”
Another interesting fact for public consumption would be the different set of rules applied to the children of said “educators.”
Directly referring to “Homework” and excessive” Checkouts “.