You gotta know I’d be a fool not to see …Cause everyone that sees you Always wants to know you And everyone that knows you Always has a smile

    So it’s budget time in a rural school district in the state.  The board is considering a prospective budget.  They hold an open meeting, but no one attends (not unusual in rural school districts), and then, after that meeting, before the next meeting at which the budget will come up for final approval, a reporter in a nearby larger town calls to request a copy of the proposed school district budget.  She wants to use it for a story prior to the meeting where it is finalized, so that the community members who weren’t able to be at the meeting can know what’s happening before it’s too late to object.

    What response would you guess she gets?  Does the district custodian of records send her the copy of the budget without objecting to her request?  Of course not.  Nope, they tell her it’s not a public records because it’s not finalized.  So she can’t have it.  She goes back and tells them that her attorney says it’s a draft record, but it’s a public record nonetheless and to cough it up.  But do they?  Of course not.  They tell her they don’t intend to give it to her until it’s been approved by the board.

    This story makes me laugh, because it’s just one more time that it is driven home to me how important the word “retained” is in the law.  If the record is “retained” by the body, it doesn’t matter whether it’s been approved by the board or not.  It’s a public record just because it’s retained by the custodian of records of the body.  What always makes me laugh is the definition of this word used in the Hemeyer v. KRCG case which I litigated.  I knew when we hit the Missouri Supreme Court that this was the key word for that case and the definition I used in my brief, in this case from the late 1990s, came from a Webster’s Dictionary in my office dated about the time I graduated from high school  (No dates mentioned here, folks!).  The fact that the Court used my definition in its decision so embarassed me I went out and bought myself a more current dictionary in the office so I’d never be using 20-some year old dictionary for such purposes in the future.

    But I digress.  This may be a stupid story, but it’s light years smarter than the folks in this district who don’t get that when the law says a record is public if it’s “retained” that just having it in the hot little hands of their custodian of records is enough for them to clearly be violating the law.

    The public wants to see this draft record, folks.  Turn it over!