Dear Mayor Frey,
As you know, for nearly three and one half years now, I have been asking why no City official has ever responded to the questions Judge Kathryn Quaintance asked at the sentencing of Mohamed Noor, and then repeated at his resentencing 13 months ago.
During one of my visits to your office, I was told by Becky Boland that this topic had been discussed at a recent staff meeting, and it was decided the questions were too old to respond to. I was skeptical of that explanation because I have taken classes that dealt with questions that were far older, e.g., questions asked by Plato or Socrates. So I asked that the reason for not answering Quaintance’s questions be put in writing. When it wasn’t, I submitted a Data Practices request for the minutes of Mayoral staff meetings around that time — it was in May, as I recall — and for notes and minutes of those meetings.
I received the [agenda], none of which had any agenda item referring to Quaintance’s questions. But, somewhat surprisingly, I received no notes and no minutes. I then wrote the OpenCity folks, suggesting that there had to be some notes or minutes, and they reopened the original request. They soon replied, though, that there were no notes or minutes.
I thought that maybe there were notes or minutes, but they were protected by some provision of the Data Practices Act — something akin to executive privilege at the local level, for example — but I rejected that explanation because if that were the case, I would have been provided the notes in a redacted form, with a citation to the statutory provision. And I didn’t receive that.
So here’s my modest proposal: Have someone take notes at Mayoral staff meetings. Or if someone is taking notes, have them save those notes. Do not have them flush them down the toilet, as I have heard sometimes happens with government documents. It seems to me that keeping records of at least the decisions made at such meetings just might enable Minneapolis City government to be more efficient.
As you may know, Socrates did not take notes, so we’ve had to rely on Plato’s reconstructed renditions of those conversations or dialogues, many of which Plato wasn’t even present for. And look where that has left us: The questions are still not definitely answered.
I would appreciate it if you would inform me whether you do initiate such a note-taking practice for future Mayoral staff meetings. It would make Data Practices requests much less of a waste of time, both for those making those requests and for Minneapolis officials.
Thank you.
Yours,
Chuck Turchick
Ward 6
