Update: Who You Callin' Volume 2

Click Here to read Judge Bender's recent ruling related to the Freedom of Information lawsuit. (Adobe Acrobat File)

The Penn Yan village board has been doing a lot of complaining about the recent lawsuit that challenged the village's denial of a freedom of information request. The request asked for copies of some paid phone bills for the village cell phone issued to mayor Douglas Marchionda .

Mr. Marchionda's cell phone is paid for and supplied by the taxpayers of the village of Penn Yan. He should only be using this cell phone for official village business. As such, these official phone records are not privileged information. The public has a right to know how the government is using a resource when they foot the bill. In reading over a recent ruling from Judge Bender, it appears that Mr. Marchionda has been using his official village cell phone to make a number of personal calls. ("Many [calls] have been identified as having been made to specified family members of the mayor," said Judge Bender in his ruling).Some of us think that Marchionda's furious fight to withhold his mayoral cell phone records has much more to do with his desire to conceal his personal phone calls than any desire to protect the privacy of the people he was calling.

Even a non-lawyer can clearly see that case law doesn't support the village's position of keeping their phone bills secret. Considering the facts, many of us were astounded that the village board would decide to go to court rather than release copies of the phone bills. Investigative reporters have been unearthing the cell phone records of elected officials for as long as cell phones have been around. Reporters have used freedom of information laws to uncover how some unscrupulous elected officials have used taxpayer funded cell phones for everything from calling sweethearts to ordering pizza to talking to contractors building their vacation homes. Who amongst us thinks we should place blind trust in the goodness of elected officials rather than hold them accountable for their actions? Freedom of Information Laws safeguard taxpayers from fraud, abuse and wasteful expenditure. What does it say about this village board that they are willing to go to such expense and effort to keep village residents from seeing the mayor's phone bills? Even though village taxpayers paid those bills, this board thinks they ought to be kept secret. As judge Bender quoted in his ruling, "the public is vested with an inherent right to know, and official secrecy is anthematic to our form of government".

Archive - Past "What's New" Items:

Ode to a Fallen Oak - August 7, 2004
Who Moved Our Sign? - August 14, 2004
Special Use Permits - August 21, 2004
What's Wrong with this Picture? - September 11, 2004
Who are You Calling? - September 19, 2004
Chronicle Express - Afraid to Ask the Tough Questions? - September 30, 2004
Who You Callin' - Volume 2 - December 27, 2004
Should Snowmobiles be Allowed in the Village? - January 2005
Revised EAF and so-called 'decibel study' - March 2005
A New Tour Boat for Keuka Lake - May 2005
Walgreens Proposal- July 2005
August Boat show - August 2005

 

 

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