Freedom of Information Act At Work - Cost to see Palin's email: 15 Million Dollars

[Trancendental]

Sarah Palin's office has discovered a renewable resource to bring millions of dollars into Alaska's economy: the governor's e-mails.
The office of the Republican vice-presidential nominee has quoted prices as high as $15 million for copies of state e-mails requested by news organizations and citizens. No matter what the price, most of the e-mails of Palin, her senior staff and other state employees won't be made public until at least several weeks after the Nov. 4 presidential election, her office told msnbc.com on Thursday.
How did the cost reach $15 million? Let's look at a typical request. When the Associated Press asked for all state e-mails sent to the governor's husband, Todd Palin, her office said it would take up to six hours of a programmer's time to assemble the e-mail of just a single state employee, then another two hours for "security" checks, and finally five hours to search the e-mail for whatever word or topic the requestor is seeking. At $73.87 an hour, that's $960.31 for a single e-mail account. And there are 16,000 full-time state employees. The cost quoted to the AP: $15,364,960.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27228287/

Fascinating read. Any inspiring techies - apparently you can make a BUNDLE from the Alaskan govt if you can retrieve emails from an email server using specific criterea.

And I just love the "Aw shucks wish we had planned a better way to get this info" BS from the commish on the second page. Yeah, I'm sure you're heartbroken that the dealings of Alaskan government aren't more transparent to the people.

 

[trq]

I've got to say: if I had to think of ONE change I would make to the Constitution/Bill of Rights, it would basically be a "FOIA" Amendment. Democracy depends on an educated citizenry, and that requires transparent government.

 

[plasticbathmonki]

Under FOIA laws, it'd be hard to imagine justifying the cost,; however, FOIA only covers the federal gub'mint. Each state has their own laws. The Alaska AG's office could just as easily try to block the request as easily as they could force it through.

 

[fatherofcaitlyn]

[quote name='trq']I've got to say: if I had to think of ONE change I would make to the Constitution/Bill of Rights, it would basically be a "FOIA" Amendment. Democracy depends on an educated citizenry, and that requires transparent government.[/quote]

Our government is transparently corrupt. Isn't that enough?