How Rick Snyder Has Handled FOIA

(Posted April 12) To declare that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has been “embattled” during the past six months is an understatement of the first “water.”

Snyder has been vilified by the ‘usual suspects’ among his political enemies — Democrats, liberals, progressives, union activists — over the Flint “water crisis.” But he’s also taken a beating from entities that should know better, and DO know better, except that they’re poorly-focussed, ill-financed and often just plan lazy. We’re talking about the news media, interest groups, public relations flacks, and the political “chattering class” who will go along with any outrageous depiction of current events as long as it doesn’t get them into trouble or affect their bottom line.

To be sure, Snyder has never been able to build up a deep-seated constituency of emotional support from any portion of the citizenry who would go to bat for him if he got into political trouble, which he’s been in for some time. Voters feel little connection with Snyder, even though he’s been a decent, civil, gentlemanly public servant who has eschewed personal attacks on opponents who despise his policies.

Nothing demonstrates the essential unfairness of news coverage of Snyder than the castigation of the governor, and of Republicans in control of state government, than the demand by the Mainstream News Media (MSM) that Snyder voluntarily divulge through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) the contents of all his emails — and of emails within the executive office and all of the executive branch of state government —  about the Flint crisis, even though he was and is under no legal obligation to do so.

But Snyder DID release such emails, anyway, starting with 550 of them covering at least 270 pages back in January and February that he thought “would likely be of interest to the news media and the general public.” He then released some 6,000 more, covering 4,400 pages, last month.

Did he get any credit for it? Of course not. The question is, why not? There are four reasons:

1. When any government official releases something “voluntarily,” the question always is: “But did he hold something back? We deserve to know that. There should be a law compelling him to release everything, and Snyder and his party are blocking execution of such a policy. What is he trying to hide?” Democrats as well as the news media belabor the point that Michigan is one of only two states with a blanket exemption from public records law.
2. The news media is ‘low energy’ and in financially-straitened circumstances. It doesn’t have the resources (or the stamina) to pursue responses to the questions it wants answered. As David Waymire, a Booth Newspaper reporter “back in the day” (he’s now a pr maven), said on Michigan Public Television’s “Off the Record” this past week-end: “I was assigned to covering environmental news in state government exclusively. I knew those people. I went to the DNR and DEQ every day. That doesn’t exist anymore.” No, it doesn’t, so the news media demands that there be a law to spoon-feed it information at their computers which they can dissect and opine upon without moving.
3. But what if there were such a law? Let’s remove the “blanket exemption” that the news media rails against. Would it make any difference? Almost certainly not. In New York State, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo communicates, he leaves no trace. Cuomo, a Democrat, claims he doesn’t like email, which is the communications tool of choice for many politicos and government officials, along with much of the private sector. As The Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin points out, state records — or lack thereof — show how far Cuomo’s distaste for email goes.  A request under New York’s FOIA law (which does NOT exempt the executive branch as Michigan’s does) for any emails sent or received by Cuomo since his first day in office turned up ZERO messages from 2011 up to the present. Nor did Cuomo’s office turn over any messages sent through BlackBerry messenger, a hard-to-trace messaging service widely reported to be a communication tool favored by the Democratic governor, according to pressconnects.com, which is part of the USA TODAY network. Cuomo doesn’t have a state email account, according to his office. And his Blackberry isn’t owned by the state. A Cuomo aide has informed the media: “Executive chamber staff do not use personal email accounts to conduct state business.” No law in the state of New York requires the governor to communicate via email or even set up a state account. Same in Illinois, where Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner explained to reporters why requests for his emails come up empty. He doesn’t use email. “None whatsoever,” he said. “Email causes all kinds of trouble. Nothing good comes from that.” Snyder would surely agree. So would Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, two other Republican governors who have never set up a state email account, although Brownback has been criticized for using private email to communicate with his staff (and nothing can be done to stop him).
4.  Minority Democrats in the state Legislature have cleverly woven the demand for more “sunshine” and “openness” and “accountability” by Snyder and the GOP-controlled House and Senate into their narrative that their opponents “have something to hide.” Dems’ demands to expand and liberalize FOIA to compel the Republicans who run state government to divulge what they’re allegedly obfuscating fit neatly into the Democratic campaign theme that the Flint water crisis was “mishandled,” that a massive “cover-up” by the Snyder administration is underway., and that “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The Democrats are abetted by a Lansing- and Detroit-centered MSM that is not sympathetic with the Republicans’ overall agenda and would love to see the GOP taken down a few pegs. Problem is, Democrats did nothing about the “government transparency” issue when they had control of everything back in the early 1980s, or even as recently as when they held the governorship with Jennifer Granholm for eight years and controlled the state House for four. If the news media realizes the hypocrisy, they’re silent about it, or some of them are so young and new-to-the-game they don’t remember and haven’t bothered to look up the history.

Under pressure to prove to the media and the general electorate that they’re as sensitive to criticism about the lack of transparency in state government as their antagonists, the state House GOP has introduced a 10-bill package of bills that would open legislative communications to the public. Eight of the bills (HBs 5469-5476) would create a Legislative Open Records Act (LORA), which mirrors the FOIA but is applicable only to the Legislature. The final two bills (HBs 5477-5478) expand FOIA to the Governor’s office. The entire package if enacted would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2017, and would not be retroactive. The 10 bills have been referred to the House Oversight & Ethics Committee, with a hearing expected later this month.

Under the LORA measures, constituent communications would be exempt from requests, meaning that if a K-12 school superintendent or other local official who is not a registered lobbyist communicated with a lawmaker, s/he would not be subject to a public request. Other exemptions include: 1) Personnel records that are personal in nature, such as human resource files; 2) Advisory communications within the public body or between public bodies; 3) Trade, commercial, or financial records provided confidentially to assist public policy; 4) Communications regarding bill drafting, sergeant-at-arms security issues, and auditor general records; and 5) Records exclusively maintained by legislative caucuses of both major political parties.

But does any of this require the executive branch or members of the Legislature to set up state email accounts? No way, which means that all the hullaballoo the citizenry has been exposed to for months has been meaningless. Anything in the way of “sunshine” that the media claims must be enacted isn’t going to happen, or, if it is, it will be easily circumvented, as we’ve found in New York, Illinois, Alabama, Kansas and countless other states.