How much do you think Grant County Schools spends on legal services?

So I hate to be the messenger but...

Yesterday, I posted a blog about how Grant County Schools decided that it would be a better idea to give the run-around for a simple Open Records Request (that had been filled by 30+ other school districts already) by opting to involve their legal representation rather than just send me the requested information.  I posted the letter I received from the nice folks at O'Hara, Ruberg, Taylor, Sloan and Sergent and asked this question:

Is it a good use of taxpayer money to involve a law firm in a simple Freedom of Information request when the request could have just been filled like all the other schools districts that received the same request? Furthermore, is it transparent?

Well, my curiosity got the better of me.  Thankfully, last year, we did an open records request to obtain the Grant County Schools check register.  And what did we find?  In fiscal year 2009, Grant County Schools paid a legal fee of:

                                                                    $109,727.81 

Wow.  A six-figure expenditure for legal services in a school district with only 5 schools!?!?? Help me understand this.

Comparable school districts, such as Lee County Schools (4 schools), opted to spend money on legal services by individual use rather than a one time expense and spent a mere fraction of what Grant County did.

• Is this a good use of taxpayer money?
• Why do they feel the need to retain legal services with six-figures
• Why couldn't they just fulfill the request?

This is why our education system continues to "need" money.

Records requests, run-arounds, and law firms! Oh my!

Operation: Open Records 2010 continues with some amusing results.

I received a letter this morning from a nice group of attorneys representing Grant County Public Schools. I requested the criteria used to evaluate their superintendent and a copy of the most recent superintendent evaluation. Here's the letter I received in response...

Now, really? Come on.

• Sure, I addressed it to "To Whom It May Concern" because quite frankly I had no idea at the time who the custodian of the records was. What else was I supposed to say?
• I've already received over 30 responses from other districts who were sent the same request worded the exact same way. No one else had trouble forwarding this letter to the infamous "To Whom It May Concern". Why did Grant County Schools have so much trouble with that?
• The most infuriating thing is that the letter was sent to the Grant County School's address, not the law offices of O'Hara, Ruberg, Taylor, Sloan and Sergent. This means that the letter was received by someone at Grant County Schools, forwarded over to the law firm (which I'm sure is not cheap) for the law firm to tell me that the person I need to talk to is actually located at the address I sent the first letter to! Wow. This is why our education system bleeds money: rather than comply with a simple Freedom of Information request, Grant County Schools chose to involve their legal representation.
  

Is this transparency in public education and is this the best way to spend taxpayer money?