, Adding To Roch's Pile: Part 10

In previous installments of , Adding To Roch's Pile I accused the City of Greensboro of  deliberately leaving out attachments to files on the e-mails they sent me and of using a company called Reputation Management Consultants to bury bad news about the City of Greensboro posted online.

Sometimes I'm just plain wrong. Sometimes I'm an asshole.

In the case of at least part of the attachments (I haven't had time to check them all) Ms Carter from the City of Greensboro, called me at home this morning per my request. and explained to me how to open the attachments I apologized to Ms Carter on the phone and sent her an e-mail that I wish to make public:

I also must share an e-mail Ms Carter sent to me yesterday concerning Reputation Management Consultants:

"On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 1:01 PM, Carter, Katherine <Katherine.Carter@greensboro-nc.gov> wrote:

Good Afternoon Billy,

Regarding your search for communications between City of Greensboro employees or elected leaders and a company named Reputation Management Consultants, our IT search under the term “Reputation Management Consultants” identified no emails other than my original query.  In addition, no payments have been made through the Lawson system to this vendor. 

We will therefore be closing your request at this time.

Sincerely,

Katherine Carter, Public Records Administrator

Communications and Marketing Department - 336-373-3282

City of Greensboro

PO Box 3136, Greensboro, NC 27402-3136

www.greensboro-nc.gov"

I just don't understand and I expressed my frustration in the reply I sent to her:

"Seriously? It took 3 weeks and 3 days to figure this out?

Perhaps you or your employer can explain this screen grab taken from the Greensboro PIRT site on September 14, 2014 which makes the claim that Staff was compiling a response: https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x_-I0eAUUPg/V9n2E5GIV8I/AAAAAAAAGC0/xjcZUQuiXwM7kd8oajXMYSjLwLklNN95gCLcB/s1600/RMC.JPG

Now either staff was compiling a response or staff was not compiling a response-- which was it, Ms Carter?

Are you aware of the gravity of the situation? It appears that you either lied in stating that staff was compiling a response or you are lying in stating that no such records exist.

And if not you then someone else.

3 weeks and 3 days to be told something that can be found simply by typing key words into a search engine?

And why did it take from Thursday to Wednesday for my PIRT, RMC 2 to appear on the city website when others submitted later appeared first? http://www.greensboro-nc.gov/index.aspx?page=3765

Or from Sunday to Wednesday for RMC 3 to appear when others submitted later appeared first?

I HAVE THE SCREEN GRABS TO PROVE THAT AS WELL.

Am I going to have to file a second law suit against the City before the first one goes to court?

What is the problem, why the delays?

Do you not understand I am documenting all of this at EzGreensboro.com ?

My advice: find another job and get out while you still can. Before someone in Raleigh decides to get her revenge on the Greensboro City Council by passing all this along to the SBI and Attorney General's office and you get thrown in with the rest of them.

Okay, so maybe that is badgering but 3 weeks and 3 days for what should have been a same day response? Something is amiss here. On August 22, 2014, PIRT #3811 was submitted to the City of Greensboro. It too required use of the Lawson system to look up receipts. In just 4 days Sarah Healy sent a completed reply. The following link is to one of the receipts Ms Healey sent:   http://webapps.greensboro-nc.gov/applicationDocuments/PIRT/attachments/Public/3811/Invoice%202.pdf   Here is another: http://webapps.greensboro-nc.gov/applicationDocuments/PIRT/attachments/Public/3811/Invoice.pdf

Why is this suddenly so hard and so time consuming?  Has Ms Carter not been trained to do her job? Or is this, as myself and others believe, an ongoing and deliberate attempt to suppress information?

-Billy Jones"

I frankly wouldn't want her job, dealing with jerks like me.

Ms Carter told me on the telephone this morning the City is considering hiring a full time person to fill PIRTs. They had a full time person before. They created this problem a year ago and have ignored it ever since despite our complaints. Public records are the mainstay of open and honest governance-- not a place to cut costs.

Do like I've been telling them to do for over 2 years, put public records online so that the public can find them. That should be the job of the public relations department-- not smoothing over the lies politicians tell us.

So maybe the City never hired Reputation Management Consultants-- maybe they did. I can't prove they did but their handling of PIRT requests is suspect. But the attachments are in the files they sent me and I'm wrong about that.

And for that, Dear Readers, you too have my apology. I'm thinking it's time I wrote a new poem, short story or something fun.

I've given it a lot of thought. I'm no longer going to run for Mayor of Greensboro. While I believe my ideas are sound and my intentions pure and just, I simply haven't the temperament to put up with all the self-centered, greedy, money motivated people whose only concerns are their own self-interest so rather than risk becoming known as the only Mayor of Greensboro to gun down an entire arrogant City Council I've decided to hope that someone else with pure intentions will give my ideas a try.

I'm down but I'm not out, the story continues at Adding To Roch's Pile: Part 11