TFred
Regular Member
Civil Penalties Are There for a Reason
by Megan Rhyne, Executive Director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government
Did you know that in Florida, a government employee’s failure to comply with the state’s public records act can result in not only a $1,000 fine, but also one year in jail? Or both! It’s no mere theoretical penalty, it’s been imposed.
Fines imposed on Washington state and local officials have ballooned from $108,000 in 2006 to nearly $1.7 million in 2011, according to an examination of Public Records Act cases by a Seattle television station.
A judge in Washington last month imposed a record $649,896 fine against the Department of Social and Health Services for withholding records from an 18-year-old woman who sought information to the abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of her father.
Officials obviously keep violating the law, but I’m willing to bet that nearly $650,000 in fines will get an agency’s attention that they better toe the line. I’m also willing to bet that there are some taxpayers out there who are pretty angry that their tax dollars are being spent to litigate cases and then paying fines when records should have been disclosed in the first place.
Virginia law allows a judge to impose a civil penalty of between $500 and $2,000 for a first violation and between $2,000 and $5,000 for subsequent offenses. That’s a far cry from possible prison sentences and six-figure fines.
... See link above for rest of article...
TFred
by Megan Rhyne, Executive Director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government
Did you know that in Florida, a government employee’s failure to comply with the state’s public records act can result in not only a $1,000 fine, but also one year in jail? Or both! It’s no mere theoretical penalty, it’s been imposed.
Fines imposed on Washington state and local officials have ballooned from $108,000 in 2006 to nearly $1.7 million in 2011, according to an examination of Public Records Act cases by a Seattle television station.
A judge in Washington last month imposed a record $649,896 fine against the Department of Social and Health Services for withholding records from an 18-year-old woman who sought information to the abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of her father.
Officials obviously keep violating the law, but I’m willing to bet that nearly $650,000 in fines will get an agency’s attention that they better toe the line. I’m also willing to bet that there are some taxpayers out there who are pretty angry that their tax dollars are being spent to litigate cases and then paying fines when records should have been disclosed in the first place.
Virginia law allows a judge to impose a civil penalty of between $500 and $2,000 for a first violation and between $2,000 and $5,000 for subsequent offenses. That’s a far cry from possible prison sentences and six-figure fines.
... See link above for rest of article...
TFred