FOIA Friday: Waiting for financial disclosure records

Mayor Mike Duggan is a distinguished supporter of Prop. 1, a Nov. 8 poll subject that might require state officers to reveal earnings sources and different monetary data.

Sure, however: Detroit already has monetary disclosure necessities — it is simply tough to entry the data.

• The town took greater than three months — effectively past the authorized 15-day window — to reply our June public information request for disclosure statements submitted by Duggan and different high-ranking metropolis workers this 12 months and final.
• In truth, the town didn’t present substantive solutions to our inquiries till we requested questions on Wednesday for this text.

What they’re saying: The delay is due to a mistake pulling the information, Duggan spokesperson John Roach informed us yesterday.

• “The paperwork initially pulled had been disclosure kinds that had been … not aware of your FOIA, so the method needed to begin once more,” Roach wrote in an e mail.

Why it issues: Duggan set Detroit’s monetary disclosure guidelines in a 2015 govt order in an effort to advertise transparency.

• However there could be no transparency if the town would not flip over the monetary disclosure information beneath FOIA.
• Michigan and Idaho are the one two states that do not require lawmakers to file annual monetary disclosure stories.
• Such data is crucial to ferreting out conflicts of curiosity.

Particulars: If authorized, Prop. 1 would require annual monetary disclosure kinds from all state legislators.

• It might additionally scale back the full time a politician can serve within the legislature from 14 to 12 years and permit lawmakers the choice of serving their phrases in any mixture of the state Home or Senate.
• Representatives now have a six-year time period restrict.

What’s subsequent: The town will present Axios with the requested monetary disclosure kinds “within the subsequent day or so,” Roach wrote yesterday.