Assume for the sake of argument that the City was not trying to hide the missing memo.

The content and timing of the memo make it hard to understand why the City would deliberately conceal it.

At some point the issue of competence has to be raised.

One of the City's lawyers, Becky Jo Peterson-Buie, told the N&R, "We have researched and are not aware of the existence of the alleged two-page memo summarizing the rational behind the black book. Consequently, there is no public record in response to your request."

What kind of "research" was done?

How much attention could have been paid to the request if they couldn't find the document?

This wasn't some obscure historical artifact, it was a memo about the most explosive element of the biggest City Hall story in recent years.

The request didn't come out of the blue, but after years of discussion and after demand from all quarters for better communication on this case from the City.

We could use a better explanation than "oops."

Comments

[Spag]

Ed, we asked for those same documents but received no response at all. We have received a response on the "black book" itself and the RMA- neither of which are acceptable to any of us at this point.

What else makes them look foolish is that Cohen said he had these documents and was going to show them to the City Council until Alan Duncan nixed the idea. So Peterson-Buie claims that the documents that Cohen has and Duncan doesn't think they should see don't even exist! Even before Ben & the Rhino published them, ask yourself "how stupid is THAT?"

The incompetence is astounding. It starts at the top. Johnson and the legal staff need to go. There is something more going on here. Either that or Johnson is simply ill-equipped for the position. The City should find a manager with some experience and education in public administration instead of physics. This guy is ruining the City and the public confidence in same.

[Roch101]

One can speculate about whether this instance was deliberate concealment or incompetence, but the response thus far to the request made by Sam, Joe and me demonstrates a willful reticence to comply with records requests in certain areas. There are a number of records we requested that should have required minimal effort to retrieve yet, more than 90 days after our request, we have not received them. I get the unfortunate sense that the people who are deciding on these things are simply contemptuous of the public's right to know.

[Fred Gregory]

Roch,

Contempt, oh yes indeed.. Defiance and arrogance that are breathtaking.

Maximilian Robespierre at the trial of King Louis XVI:

" You have not to pass sentence for or against a single man but you have to take resolution on a question of the public safety, and decide a question of material foresight. It is with regret that I pronounce a fatal truth: Louis ought to persih rather than a hundred thousand virtous citizens; Louis must die that the country may live. "