PeruNews: Second FOAA request letter after no response to earlier request‏

Dwight E. Hines, Ph.D.

IndyMedia

Livermore, Maine 04253

 

February 3, 2014

Mr. Jim Pulsifer, Chair
Peru Board of Selectmen
and Vera Parent, Clerk of Peru
26 Main Street
Peru, Maine 04290

Dear Mr. Pulsifer and Ms. Parent:

On January 22, 2014, I emailed both of you the attached letter containing the legal demand that you and Ms. Parent cease and desist from not complying with the Maine Freedom of Access Act.  I also emailed copies of the letter to Angela, secretary to the Board.  I spoke with her on the phone and requested that she distribute the letter to the entire Board.  She said she would distribute the letter to them.  I followed up my email to both of you with hard copies of the email, sending it by first class U.S. Mail.  

Your response to Ms. Witherell is not a response to my request.  Your demands to her for unreasonable, indeed, arbitrary, capricious, and unjustifiable amounts of money for just viewing the documents, is a constructive denial of the requests.  Charging for viewing documents is not allowed under Maine’s FOAA.

As of this date, you have not responded to my email or my letter — not even a simple phone call. Thus you two are continuing to fail to comply with the requirements of Maine’s FOAA and your manners and  styles now constitute aggravated bad faith.

I am repeating my demand that you provide me with the name and contact information of the attorney the Town of Peru who you will employ to defend my complaints of your aggravated bad faith failures to comply with Maine FOAA requests.

This letter is also to notify you to place a litigation hold on any and all documents created or maintained by the town of Peru for the past five years that pertain to or relate to all, or any, or part of our FOAA requests in content, category, or procedure. 

Dwight Hines

Copy:
Peruvians for an Honest Government
Lisbonreporter.com
Brenda Kielty, Ombudsman, Office of Maine Attorney General
Peru Board of Selectmen

Attached:

Cease and Desist letter of January 22, 2014, with FOAA request and a request for name and contact information for town attorney for Peru.

Dwight E. Hines, Ph.D.
IndyMedia

Livermore, Maine 04253

January 22, 2014

Mr. Jim Pulsifer, Chair
Peru Board of Selectmen
and Vera Parent, Clerk of Peru
26 Main Street
Peru, Maine 04290

Dear Mr. Pulsifer and Ms. Parent:

I demand that you and Ms. Parent cease and desist from refusing to
comply with legitimate Maine public records requests from Martha
Winterell and others, including me, for access to documents on Town of Peru expenditures. Your refusal to provide access to documents as
requested, your refusal to keep your appointment with Ms. Winterell to allow her to view documents, and your claim that it would take “150 hours” to access the documents are all real and constructive denials of our FOAA requests.

Please be aware that your bad faith actions, over a period of months,
means that a Superior Court Judge could require the Town of Peru to
pay all attorneysʼ costs and fees including, but not limited to Ms.
Winterellʼs preparation time and costs and her time and expenses she in coming to the Town Office for her appointment to view documents from Ms. Parent, an appointment that Ms. Parent failed to keep. The Judge will also be told that the tens of thousands of dollars Peru spent for computers, hardware and software and training, over the last four years, without competitive bidding, have not improved or increased
transparency of the Townʼs actions.

Please note that I am copying this letter to the U.S. Internal Revenue
Service as a formal complaint that individuals have received substantial amounts of money from the Town of Peru without taxes being withheld or notice of the payments to the IRS, payments that are now known to be over $5,000.00 to Mr. Tim Holland and over $6,000.00 to Ms.Hussey.

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As you know, Maine is not just rated at the bottom of all states in being unfriendly to businesses by Forbes Magazine, a position Maine has held now for 4 years, and Maine also has a substantial underground economy. Given that Mr. Holland does not, and has not for some years, paid his local taxes, it appears that Peru is contributing to the underground economy. Though we will need to examine the Town records to know how much the amount of money is not accountable.

Please provide me with the name and contact information for the
attorney who will be representing the town for our claim of bad faith
failure to comply with FOAA requests. Second, be advised that you
need to notify your insurance company of these bad faith failures or risk losing your litigation coverage.

Dwight Hines

Copy:
U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations
Lisbonreporter.com
Peruvians for Honest Government (PHG, Martha Winterell)

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