I am often amazed at people’s reactions to things.

The good, the bad and the ugly.  And don’t think for a minute that I am leaving myself out of the “people” category.  I find myself reacting to various situations in ways that surprise me.  Sometimes good, sometimes not so much.

One of the things that I find amazing is the reaction of public employees, when faced with the opportunity to communicate with the very people that hire them.  The public.

Municipal, county, state and federal employees are hired by the very public they serve.  They are the boss.  Now granted, the data entry clerk, or computer technician isn’t likely to be having meetings with “the bosses”.  The bosses, hire other people to manage day to day operations, including the hiring and termination of employees.

Along with being “the boss” comes certain rights and privileges.  Some of these rights manifest themselves in the “right to know”.   And in the case of Virginia, we have Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act (more information here:  http://foiacouncil.dls.virginia.gov/).

The reaction to most FOIA requests by public employees, is one of suspicion and a lot of the time, they will take a defensive posture.  Rather than try to fulfill the request with as much information as possible, the reaction forms a mindset of how much can we legally withhold.  A “give them just enough” mentality.  Just enough to meet the requirements.

This is actually detrimental to the spirit of the FOIA.  The FOIA is meant to foster a great deal of communication between public employees and their bosses.  The withholding of information perpetuates a feeling of being duped to the public.  A perception of evil, wrongdoing, shenanigans and the like.  Even when none of that is present.

The proper response to a FOIA request should be one of cooperation and openness.  FULL cooperation and FULLY open, government.  Anything less, breeds contempt.