Sound public policy demands transparency. But that’s apparently a foreign concept to the Washington County Board of Commissioners.
When the Observer-Reporter newspaper attempted to report on the county’s new $24.4 million public safety radio contract with Motorola Solutions Inc., it sought a copy of that contract.
The board approved the contract on Sept. 23. The newspaper immediately filed an open records request. Nearly a month later, on Oct. 18, the county denied the request. The newspaper then filed an appeal with the state Office of Open Records.
Then the county decided to release a heavily redacted version of the contract. As the O-R reports it:
“Of the 516 pages in Motorola’s contract and proposal, the county released a version in which 405 pages are totally redacted and other 23 pages are partially redacted. Only 88 pages are fully readable, most of which offer only general contract terms, legal definitions, software licensing agreements or information about various radio systems and hand-held devices. Pages describing the pricing summary and preliminary work scheduled are totally redacted from view,” the newspaper said.
In other words, the county made public a document that was useless to the public that’s paying for this thing. Talk about radio silence.
Assistant Washington County Solicitor Sarah Scott, in her letter accompanying the release of the redacted contract, cited, among other things, “trade secrets.”
Again, from the O-R’s reporting:
“In the Exhibits produced by Motorola and County, there are specific items that are deemed trade secrets because they are not readily available to the general public and should not be directly revealed to competitors. … In addition, there are certain portions that have been redacted based upon Public Safety Information for the County. This is in protection of the General Welfare of the residents of Washington County, as the general public should not be aware of Washington County’s public safety information and/or infrastructure,” Scott wrote.
“She argued the redactions are needed to ‘protect the interest of Motorola’ since releasing information about equipment, designs and costs would ‘subject Motorola with an undue burden’ by possibly releasing proprietary information to competitors.”
Say what? Sorry, but no. The general public has every right to be fully aware and informed about how their government is conducting the people’s business. And that would include access to competing bids that were rejected, bids the O-R also is seeking.
The real “undue burden” here is being placed on the public’s right to know how its government is operating. If Motorola, or any other company, has a problem with that, they can peddle their wares elsewhere.
The public business is the public’s business. Period. Here’s hoping the state Office of Open Records orders Washington County to release the full contract along with the bids of the losing contractors.
Sound public policy demands no less.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
