Louisiana Voice

What happens when a taxpaying citizen decides he’d like to know more about how a public, taxpayer-supported entity operates and proceeds to submit public records requests (PRRs) that conceivably could prove embarrassing to that public body?

Why, that public body files a lawsuit to stop the citizen in his tracks.

LouisianaVoice has documented at least two instances of that tactic being employed in the past: the first was when 4^th District Court judges up in Monroe filed suit against the Ouachita Citizen newspaper. That was more than a decade ago, back in 2015. We followed that sordid story with several posts. You can check them out HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

It was such a bizarre strategy that even a local television station had a STORY  about the unique litigation.

Of course, the Gannett newspaper, the Monroe News-Star remained characteristically mute on the subject, preferring instead to concentrate on the local chamber of commerce’s biggest draw to Ouachita Parish: the Robertson family and their Duck Dynasty reality show.

Then in 2021, then-Attorney General Jeff Landry, aka “Squeaky Toy,” captured the coveted “BLACK HOLE AWARD” for outright contempt of government transparency when he filed a lawsuit after he filed suit against Baton Rouge Advocate reporter Andrea Gallo after she made PRRs in December 2020 for copies of sexual harassment complaints against Pat Magre, erstwhile head of Landry’s criminal division. He resigned soon after a Baton Rouge judge ordered Landry to make the documents available.

Score: Transparency 1, Landry 0.

Now, as George Santayana or Edmund Burke said (no one’s certain who should be credited), “Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it,” the same strategy is now being employed by Butch Browning and the West Baton Rouge Fire Protection District No. 1, who have filed a similar lawsuit against John O Summers, editor and publisher of the WBR Independent news publication, who made the mistake of peppering Browning and the district with PRRs.

Oh, it’s not that the district has outright refused to provide records but for approximately 200 pages of documents it estimated it would cost Summers in excess of $1500.

First of all, the standard price for copies of records from a public body (except for clerks of courts, which generally charge $1 per pate) is 25 cents per page.

But, the Louisiana Public Records Law (La. R.S. 44:1 et seq.), stipulates that any citizen may view records at no charge and that that same citizen may make his own copies—again, at no charge. So, if one possesses a portable hand scanner, he should never have to pay for copies of public records. Again, clerk or court records are a notable exception because clerks are unique in that they fund their offices through charges for copies and through filing fees.

The basis for some of Summers’s PRRs is because he raised questions about safety procedures at a fire board meeting. As a result, both he and another firefighter were politely shown the door and told their services were no longer needed—or welcome.

Events have evolved rather quickly since Summers filed his first public records request last July and the fire district responded with a cost estimate of $1500. In August the fee was reduced to $83 and then waived—in writing—by the fire district’s own records custodian. Then over the end of August and first of September Summers was blocked on Facebook and he received a cease and desist from Browning’s personal attorney.

Then, in October, the Parish Council adopted a new fee schedule for public records that was four times the state standard. After that came more public records requests from Summers and a dispute over a fee of $121.50 until on March 20 of this year, a petition was filed in court at 9:02 a.m., followed at 4:51 by a blanket public records request refusal.

Exactly a week after that, a citation was issued against Summers and served on March 31 and a hearing set for April 29 before Judge Alvin Batiste Jr. of the 18^th JDC.

All of which has prompted a sharp, three-page letter to Browning and the district from the TULANE UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL’S FIRST AMENDMENT LAW CLINIC reminding Browning of the existence of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which spells out freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

The letter from the law clinic noted that John Summers is a decorated veteran who began his tenure following his return home from Iraq and Afghanistan, where he earned a Purple Heart (something Browning did not earn despite once decorating his state fire marshal’s uniform with military medals he did not earn).

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is now involved in the case on Summers’s behalf.

Just another day, folks, in the never-ending fight between people like John Summers who strive to keep the public informed as to what the local leaders are up to and those in positions of power who would rather not be held accountable.