The Caladonian Record ran an interesting piece this past weekend entitled “Public Records Request: Blittersdorf Says Standard Will Cost Him $1 Million.”  Although the Record is behind a paywall, the gist of the article was relatively straight forward in that it called into question the ways in which lobbyists seek to influence lawmakers. The article was in part premised on a public records request made by Annette Smith, the Executive Director of the group “Vermonters for a Clean Environment” or VCE. The records request, results of which are posted on the VCE Blog asked for records from the State Senators and Representatives on the legislative committee overseeing the new wind turbine regulations.

What caught my eye was this quote from Smith in the Record “[t]he text messages showed that the lobbyists were telling the legislators questions to ask. This is not unusual, what is unusual is actually seeing the communications.” What struck me as additionally unusual was the informality of the communications within the text messages.

The relationship between the lobbyists and the legislators is nothing new. Although I may at some point take the time to connect the dots between the lobbyists in the emails and the legislators they are communicating with, its not really the subject of this post (nor am I an investigative reporter).

I go back and forth in respect to the “weaponization” of the Public Records Act, sometimes thinking is it for the greater good and at other times believing it discourages average residents from engaging in pubic service. For example if you are volunteering on a board in a small town, is it really fair to have to respond to a public records request covering hundreds or potentially thousands of pages? What’s interesting about the VCE request is that in some instances the legislative council responds, in others the individual legislator responds. And in several instances the disclosure states that legislator X is providing the records but they could “have asserted arguments to withhold them.”

The legislative process is often described as akin to the sausage-making process. In both instances, although the final result is often appreciated, it is somewhat discouraging (and often revolting) when the ingredients are revealed in exquisite detail.