Thursday, January 13, 2011

UVA spends $500,000 on lawyers when it would cost only $8,000 to deliver public documents?

Climate e-mails and public records - Roanoke.com
That the e-mails are public documents seems clear. Mann, while a professor at the school, used an e-mail account at least partially paid for by taxpayers. Just as an elected official's or state worker's official correspondence is open to the public, so is a professor's at a state school.
...
The school estimated it would cost up to $8,000 to deliver the e-mails. That sounds high, but then we do not know how much of a mess their backup servers are. Whatever the accurate cost, if Marshall and friends will pay it, they do not deserve any more hassle from UVa than any other citizen seeking public records.
Commonwealth Foundation - Mann: From Transparency Champion to 'Bully' Victim
UVA has been resisting (spending about $500,000 on outside lawyers for the effort) a similar, previous request by Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli, who is investigating Mann under the Fraud Against Taxpayers Act.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a VA resident and taxpayer I am incensed by UVA's conduct in this matter -- particularly since UVA turned over to Greenpeace emails of a climate change skeptic on the UVA faculty.The General Assembly should cut the $500,000 from UVA's operating budget for next year -- specifically from faculty salaries.

Anonymous said...

Any chance somebody could get Socialist International member Carol Browner's documents?