By Josh Ferguson | June 3, 2025
On April 24, 2025, I submitted a formal open records request to City Hall seeking a full accounting of city expenses from January 1 to December 31, 2024. After more than a month of waiting, I finally received the documents on June 3—but what I got back wasn’t just late. It was incomplete.
According to the original calculation, the city was supposed to provide 102 additional pages that simply weren’t included in the packet I received. Whether it’s a clerical error, gross incompetence, or something more deliberate is still unclear—but let’s be real: how do you miscalculate 102 pages?
Yes, the city did issue a partial refund. A check in the amount of $10.20 was included with the records, supposedly to cover the cost of the missing pages. But money isn’t the issue here—transparency is.
A Pattern, or a Mistake?
It’s important to ask: is this a one-off error, or a symptom of a deeper issue inside City Hall? The documents I requested weren’t obscure—they involved public tax dollars and city expenditures. This is the kind of information that should be readily available, not filtered, redacted, or suspiciously “miscounted.”
A 102-page discrepancy is not just a minor oversight. It’s a red flag. Were those pages excluded because they were irrelevant—or because they were too relevant? When officials start picking and choosing what to release, especially when it comes to spending, trust in government takes a hit.
Fishy Business at City Hall?
Let’s not sugarcoat it: something smells, and it’s not coming from the river. It’s coming straight from City Hall.
This isn’t the first time local government has made access to public records needlessly complicated or incomplete. And every time it happens, it chips away at the accountability we are supposed to expect from our public servants.
If this was truly a mistake, then city officials need to own it, fix it, and release the full records immediately. If not, we have to ask: what’s being hidden, and why?
Demanding Full Transparency
This situation isn’t just about 102 pages—it’s about public confidence. When citizens request records, they expect a full, timely, and accurate response. Anything less opens the door to suspicion.
I’ll be filing a follow-up request and demanding clarification. I encourage others to do the same. Public records are ourrecords. We have a right to see where every dollar is going—and every page matters.
This isn’t over. Stay tuned
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