passopenrecords.org

A Warren Times-Observer reporter, Eric Paddock, shared his paper’s struggle with the US Forest Service with us. While it’s not a tale of struggles with state government, I thought it would be nice to show readers of the blog an example of the struggles reporters face in obtaining what should be public records.

Here’s Eric’s story, in his own words:

Earlier this year — very early — The U.S. Forest Service announced that it would move the headquarters for the Allegheny National Forest out of the City of Warren where it had been for the past 30 years.

We wanted to know how the USFS arrived at the decision since we had learned that of four proposals, three were within the city limits.

We filed a FOIA request asking for documents related to that process. What we received 7 months later was disappointing to say the least.

It can best be described in the following editorial we published on July 25 along with a sample of one of the pages of black lines:

“So, just how did the U.S. Forest Service arrive at its decision to relocate the headquarters for the Allegheny National Forest to a parcel north of Warren?

We may never know with any certainty. In fact, we may never know at all.

According to the Forest Service, it’s none of your business.

It’s none of your business how the various proposals were scored to come up with a winner. It’s not even any of your business knowing who submitted the bids.

The Times Observer submitted a Freedom of Information Act request back in early March to obtain documentation from the Forest Service relative to the selection of a new forest headquarters for the ANF.

We finally received a response on Monday, July 23. What we received was a bit surreal, even Orwellian.

The documents contained less than what we had already reported.

We had at least found out through independent sources and reported last year that a number of properties were proposed, including the site selected near the Farm Colony, the former Struthers Wells Building on Pennsylvania Avenue West, the property at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Liberty Street, and of course, its current location in the Spiridon Building on Liberty Street.

Not only had the apparatchiks at the Eastern Region office of the Forest Service in Milwaukee redacted the scores for such things as security, floor plan, restroom facilities, site size, parking, amenities and the view from windows, they had also redacted who had submitted the proposals.

For those unfamiliar with the term, redacting is the use of black marker to block information from public view.

To get a better picture of the thing, imagine a baseball box score. Now, blot out all the numbers. Next, blot out all the players. Then, blot out the team names. Leave only the final scores. Now, imagine the poor television sports guy: “Now these scores from Major League Baseball last night: 4 to 3, 8 to 5 and 3 to 2. That last one might have been in extra innings. We’re not sure.”

What the Forest Service was saying in its FOIA response was: “This is what we decided. Period. And, that’s all we are obligated to tell you.”

Specifically exempted from public view, according to the USFS, is “the deliberative process;” that is, just how the selection committee came to its decision.

There are three reasons for this secretiveness, according to the Forest Service:
• “to encourage open, frank discussions on matters of policy between subordinates and supervisors;”
• “to protect against premature disclosure of proposed policies before they are finally adopted;”
• and “to protect against public confusion that might result from disclosure of reason and rationales that were not in fact ultimately the ground for an agency action.”

Allow us to translate:
• “What happens in the Forest Service, stays in the Forest Service (a la Las Vegas).”
• “Nobody needs to know anything about our decisions until the decisions are final and almost impossible to change;
• and “We don’t want to confuse you with the facts.”

So, try to forget that it is your money that will pay for the new headquarters. Try to forget that the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service are agencies of the world’s most open democracy. Try to forget that the people who live in and around this community have a great vested interest in what those two agencies do.

Try to forget these things because apparently Big Brother — pardon us; Uncle Sam — knows best.”

We have since appealed the FOIA denial, but, frankly, I don’t hold out much hope for a positive outcome.