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There are two basic truisms when it comes to transparency: Politicians running for office tend to be strong supporters of it; but government, when confronted with bad news about itself, tends to default to secrecy and obfuscation.
In the real world, the latter often means: Get things done under the radar if possible. When dealing with information requests, delay as long as you can – claiming the request is burdensome (oh, it’s just so hard!) and scouring exemptions to the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act’s disclosure requirements to stretch them as far as possible.
If someone is looking into possible misconduct by a public employee that could lead to a departure – sometimes with a hefty goodbye check – hire a lawyer to do the investigation and claim attorney-client privilege. Or stretch the exemption for “matters of opinion” in a personnel file to include basic facts r