City of Burlington Witholding Public Records, What Are They Afraid Of?

Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, Inc.
Proudly Serving Vermont Since 1875
www.vtfsc.org

Report for Day #8 of On-site VT Public Record Law Review of Burlington Anti-Gun Proposals
Burlington City Hall, 12/4 9AM – 11:30AM

Chris Bradley and Evan Hughes were at the Burlington City Hall on Wednesday, December 4th for a material review session. The city did not have enough documents available in the preceding week to make a site visit worthwhile.

During this visit the city produced 540 Emails of which 46 were originals and the rest were duplications of previously provided items; this brings the overall total of emails provided by Burlington to 2,544 – of which approximately 625 are non-duplicates. The City of Burlington has informed the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs that thus far it has withheld 117 documents from the Federation review.

During this meeting the city informed the Federation that given a decision by the mayor, city council and city attorney that the number of withheld documents would increase dramatically. The city related the related the increased documents would be in the “hundreds” and when asked for clarification of that term of numbers, the number of “500” was cited.

If the city holds to that number, there would be over six hundred documents that the city will have withheld from public view via the Vermont Public Record Law request the Federation has submitted to the city.

The City of Burlington would be withholding these documents about how it creates a proposal to have the legislature on its proposed gun control ordinance that will give the city the power to arrest, prosecute, imprison, fine and seize the property of citizens.

Is this the way you believe Vermont law should be enacted? Tell the Burlington politicians if you do not. It is O.K. to tell them again, until they take us seriously.

miro@burlingtonvt.gov; baubin@burlingtonvt.gov; tayres@burlingtonvt.gov; brusten@burlingtonvt.gov; sharon.bushor@vtmednet.org; kevinwbtv@gmail.com; janeknodell@burlingtontelecom.net; maxwell.k.tracy@gmail.com; vbrennan@burlingtonvt.gov; rsiegel@burlingtonvt.gov; jshannon@burlingtontelecom.net; chip.mason.btv@gmail.com; normblaisvt@gmail.com; paulfin@sover.net; pdecellesw7@aol.com

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Chris S. Bradley
NatWorks, Inc. www.natworks-inc.com (802) 485-6112