Opinion Page

Is there Devil in the Details?
 
With the hope of providing the readers with all available facts and material possible to help make an informed budget decision, several weeks ago I requested under the Freedom of Information Law, or "foiled for," details regarding the cost (publishing, printing and postage) of putting together the information newsletter that was distributed by the District to campaign for your votes.
 
Unfortunately (or perhaps conveniently) that material was not available in time for me to incorporate it in an opinion column prior to the "re-vote" on June 20. Suffice it to say, at least for now, that approximately $5,000.00 has been spent to solicit votes. While keeping the facts unavailable until the 11th hour has made it a bit difficult to use them, it has also whet my appetite for studying the particulars in depth. If any interesting details are uncovered with respect to these costs, I will elaborate on them more fully in a future opinion column–and, of course, they will be posted on the web-site www.saugertieswatchdog.com .

George D. Heidcamp, Sr.

June 15, 2006

 

Here is the detailed cost for the (publishing, printing and postage) of the information newsletter that was distributed by the District to campaign for your vote back in May. Remember, the District will say that it only cost us $2,396.32 because $2,520.47 came from state aid (another words, that money came out of our "other pocket").

Bottom line is, it cost taxpayers $4,916.50 for that newsletter. The budget was defeated by 566 votes. Now they are putting the vote up again which is costing us another $6,000.00, plus the cost of another newsletter mailing. Just think of all the books they could have bought for the kids with that money!

It took 34 days for the school district to get me this document after I FOIL'ed for it.

With all the state of the art equipment the school has and the $750,000 taxpayers pay the administration - it took 34 days for someone to walk into the copier room and make a copy of this one piece of paper I asked for.

It's obvious they are trying to discourage me from obtaining material that is in the public domain.

Be assured - their attempts to derail my efforts won't succeed.