Was MCSO Public Website Used for Campaign?

Large Campaign Photo Appears in MCSO Internal Newspaper Available on MCSO Public Website

- Naked Conch - Posted by Matt Gardi -  July 14, 2012

One could say I was splitting hairs on this one, and in fact I had previously not thought it worthy of a post.  However, as Kay Thacker implied yesterday in her guest post, perhaps the long arm of the law is being used as a strong arm of the Sheriff's campaign.  Add that to the recent MCSO Koval disciplinary conspiracy, and the public records shenanigans Bill Grove experienced in exposing wasteful MCSO spending, and one feels fairly justified in holding the department under a public microscope during this campaign season.

On June 2 I sent an email to Becky Herrin, MCSO Public Information Officer, and asked;


"has there been any emails, documents or memos distributed internally within the MCSO that contained any candidates for office wearing campaign clothing, stickers or pins?"


Herrin responded;

Matt:

There are no public records that would fulfill this request for information.

Becky Herrin

Monroe County Sheriff’s Office

To which I responded;

"would the MCSO internal newsletter called the Rap Sheet constitute a public record by your definition?  If it was produced and distributed using public resources, I would argue that it does."

Herrin then directed me to the Weekly Rap Up, an MCSO produced periodical embedded with local advertising on the MCSO's PUBLIC website.  I looked through a few back issues and easily found one dated April 20 which has a large picture on Page 4 of Colonel Ramsay, dressed in campaign gear.  

So I asked Herrin;

"Thanks.  I found the attached photo in the April 20 issue.  Who produces this, and how else is it distributed?"

Herrin declined to respond to repeated questions.  I suppose that responding to questions from the Public does not fall into the job description of the tax payer funded Public Information Officer.  Perhaps her time is too consumed placing campaign photos on Public Resources, or creating roadblocks to obtaining Public Records.  (See Here.)

Fortunately, the MCSO website provided an answer to my question. 

Weekly Rap Up

The Weekly Rap Up is an email based newsletter distributed weekly to all Sheriff's Office employees. To submit an article to the Rap Up, email Deputy Becky Herrin at beckyherrin@keysso.net.

Note: Because this web site is available to the public, the Weekly Rap Up may be edited to withhold some employee information such as home or cell phone numbers and addresses. If you are an employee and want to see the complete, unedited version, it is available in Outlook Public Folders on the Sheriff's Office computer network.

Apparently, Becky Herrin herself puts together the Rap Up distributed throughout the MCSO via email and available to the Public.  Funny how she earlier stated "There are no public records that would fulfill this request..." when she herself actually produced just such a public record only weeks before.

As I mentioned at the beginning, maybe I'm just splitting hairs.  Maybe Herrin forgot she had inadvertently placed a substantially large photo of Colonel Ramsay in campaign gear in the Rap Up that she produces and that is distributed to the Public.  Maybe I shouldn't be influenced by the fact she has already shown she could create challenges to obtaining Public Records as she had done to Bill Grove.  You also would think that Herrin would err on the side of caution during the campaign season, considering efforts are made to remove phone numbers, etc.  Ahh, maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill...

But then again if we take a look at Colonel Ramsay's contributors...it must be nice to have a campaign contributor working as your Public Information Officer.

www.mattgardi.com
Paid for by Matt Gardi, Republican, for Clerk of Courts