3/28/14Slocum extorting fees to avoid accountabilty

Belfast City Manager refuses to respond direct to original email. Enabling deception, smokescreens, etc. I try to weed out his rhetoric and post the pertinent. Hence the ... in between he is trying to take me down more rabbit holes. As always, so old, so predictable, so stupid. Here's the brunt of it and I posted it in the local paper, Village Soup, Republican Journal.

POSTED BY: LAURIE LEE ALLEN | Mar 27, 2014 21:34

Belfast residents- City Manager Joe Slocum again, is attempting to charge me for public documents(see below)4 years and I've yet to get a true document, but plenty of abuse, intimidation, disrespect, lies and on and on. City Council supports the corruption. This request is vital- it will be astronomical- certainly this is readily available on the City Attorney's books- we are his w2. Residents- please save Belfast before it's bankrupt. The fees must be waived and residents should copy this and send to Joe Slocum for all the public to see. Before the budget begins and he cuts the poor blue, pink and yellow (pee-on) collars to minimum wage and throwing boatloads across the street and upstairs. If you care and will send the email, please copy me- laurieallen55@msn.com

I cannot afford to pay the fees charged by the agency or official to research my request or copy the records. Can I get a waiver?

The agency or official may, but is not required to, waive part or all of the total fee if the requester is indigent, or if the agency or official considers release of the public record to be in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of government and is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester. 1 M.R.S. § 408-A(11)

From:	Joseph Slocum (citymanager@cityofbelfast.org) This sender is in your contact list.
Sent:	Thu 3/27/14 5:19 PM
To:	LAURIE ALLEN (laurieallen55@msn.com); Manda Cushman (mcushman@cityofbelfast.org); Councilors (councilors@cityofbelfast.org)

Dear Ms. Allen,

Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information Request. I have all of your request vetted through the City Attorney to make sure I am filing a proper response to you. Unfortunately I asked him to review my response and he just got back to me late today so I do apologize for the inconvenience...

There are not many lawsuits that the City has been involved with since 2011 but at least one of them was handled by our insurance coverage and I do not have access to what fees were paid by our insurance company. Any fees paid to the City’s regular legal Counsel would have to be identified by going through years of monthly statements to identify fees that were paid in regard to any lawsuit. Our monthly legal bills are not always broken down by topic.

Accordingly I am now asking you to pay $130 in advance before I assign someone to research out these requests. This is billable at the rate of $15 an hour and will be charged after the first hour is concluded. If the task requires more time I will ask for additional payment, if it requires less than I will provide you with a refund. I will be pleased to maintain an accounting and supply you with that. You may pick whichever task you wish us to work on first. I would estimate about 4 weeks to get this work done and back to you.

... as soon as you provide us up front with the $130 to cover the City’s cost for searching out the new material you requested, then we will promptly start working on it and provide you with an estimated time within which we can do this work.

Joe Slocum,Belfast City Manager

____________________________________________________________

Original Request

From: laurieallen55@msn.com
To: jslocum@cityofbelfast.org; ward1councilor@cityofbelfast.org; laurieallen55@msn.com
Subject: Public Spending MFOIA 3/18/14
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 13:39:27 -0400

Joe Slocum-Belfast City Manager and Mary Mortier-Ward1 City Council,

Please provide the following years spread sheet cost accounting, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 to current;

1. Identify each lawsuit to the City of Belfast including all employees and include verdict,settlement and all fees.

2. Identify each and all in-house counsel fees.

3.Identify each and all costs for grants, including application, if awarded, City funds contributed, including pending and final cost for each project clearly identifying total grant cost and monies received, vs. total City funds spent and those pending or underway to date.

4. Identify each and all public money consultations/studies for all (recreation projects scrapped and/or approved, harbor walk, rail trail, parking, lighting, education/schools, capital projects, etc.) sart to finish, underway and pending to date.

Certainly this is valuable information to all with the upcoming budget and disaster we are facing. To try to extort research wages from me would be outrageous and a call for public outcry.

Sincerely,

Laurie Allen

Californians Against Lawsuit Abuse Focus on Municipal Costs of Lawsuits

POSTED BY : DAN ONEYAPRIL 22, 2013IN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS - EXCLUSIVE

A new report released by a group pushing for tort reform has outlined the costs of lawsuits associated with some of California’s local government. The 17 cities and counties included in the study a massed more than $1.09 billion in settlements and fees from lawsuits in just four years.

In addition to the now infamous settlement that pushed Mammoth Lakes into bankruptcy, the report outlines several other settlements with significant implications to local budgets. In one case from Half Moon Bay, the CALA reports that the City settled a case for $16 million – nearly double the City’s annual budget. The size of the settlement nearly caused the city disincorporate. Instead of folding, they say, the City issued $16 million in bonds and won a settlement from their insurance company.

While the $16 million settlement was a pittance in the overall $1.09 billion price tag, other cities and counties accounted for large portions of the billion dollars. Los Angeles County, for instance, spent $213 million on verdicts and settlements during the four years, and $146 million for outside legal services, the City of Los Angeles spent another $221 million on settlements and $59 million for legal services; bringing the combined totals for Los Angeles to $434 million and $205 million for settlements and services respectively. San Francisco paid $117 million in settlements and $6 million for legal services.

“[The] report examines the cost of verdicts, settlements and outside counsel to some of California’s largest cities and counties,” reads the CALA Report. “It does not take into account the cost of in-house counsel and other administrative costs associated with the enormous number of lawsuits facing cities and counties.

“While this report does not present an exhaustive accounting of the cost of litigation to cities and counties in California, the data it contains make one point exceedingly clear: it is unacceptable for cities and counties to continue paying out-of-control legal costs while vital social service and public safety programs face budget cuts.”