City Stalling on the Release of Public Information
In 2016, the NH Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff in a lawsuit Green vs School Administrative Unit #55. The New Hampshire Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision that if requested, public bodies must provide documents in electronic format when they are maintained electronically.
How has the City handled these requests for electronic readable data? Not well. When the City released the updated 2018 assessment values, the data was put online in PDF format. The City could have easily provided a downloadable excel version for the public to use. The format was cumbersome and not user friendly.
In December 2019, The City would not provide an electronic format for files that were provided, months earlier, as a paper copy. A written back and forth exchange with the City began and they stalled and would not release the information. Frustrated, I requested the data from the Department of Revenue who also had the files in electronic format and within 2 days, on Christmas Eve day, the CD arrived in the mail with all the electronic “workable” data I wanted. The state was compliant, but not the City.
On November 5, 2020, I submitted a request for the excel format of a sales comparison analysis that the assessor performed when justifying an abatement. On November 13, the City responded to the request, reiterating my request for excel electronic format, and stated the responsive documents were enclosed. However, I was duped, the documents were PDF files. Greg Turgiss, our demoted supervisor and Kim Kleiner responded to the request through the legal office and provided the wrong documents.
It appears that there was a deliberate act to not provide the requested information or cite an exemption that would allow the information not to be provided. I wrote back and asked to please send the excel format and please do not make me wait 10 days. November 23, 2020, I received a response from the City legal office, again through Kim Kleiner and Greg Turgiss. The City now needs two week, until December 7, 2020 to see if they can find an exemption under the Right to Know law to prevent the public from having this information. This now requires the work of the legal office.
This is yet another clear indicator that the City is hiding from the public. If the City wasn’t worried about the numbers not adding up, the Assessing and Legal Department would not go to such lengths to conceal. And why is all that important? Well, these spreadsheets have a lot of standard data that any citizen would find helpful when filing an abatement. An abatement is not a legal action; it is merely an exchange of data. The State law requires property owners to carry the full burden of proof to show when their assessment is unfair. If there is any hope to complete an abatement successfully, then the public needs open access to the data.
By the way, I emailed the City of Manchester Assessing Office this morning and requested an excel copy of their sales comparison analysis spreadsheet. The Chief responded in four hours and I received the excel spreadsheet.