Superintendent and School Attorney Disagree on Handling of Public Records Request

A behind closed door discussion involving New Hanover County School Superintendent Dr. Tim Markley and School System Attorney Wayne Bullard reveals the school system apparently does not have a firm policy on how public records request are to be handled.  According to Superintendent Dr. Tim Markley, when it comes to emails, the New Hanover County Schools IT person is supposed to take keywords and search the schools systems email server for relevant emails.

New Hanover County School General Council Wayne Bullard does it a different way. Accordingly to Bullard, he sends the records request to the applicable employees and ask that they respond back to him with any relevant emails. The obvious flaw in Bullard’s approach is that employees can simply filter any emails they do not want the public or media to be see. It also increases the likelihood that employees would simply delete any emails that might be self-incriminating.

On a recent public records request, Bullard said he sent request for emails to 20 to 30 people. When the records request had not been completed in a reasonable time, the requestor consulted the North Carolina Department of Justice. The NCDOJ recommended the school system be asked to produce time line which would show the employees involved in the request as well as when, and if, they had responded.

When asked who was not responding and why, Bullard said he could not disclose that information because it was a personnel matter. According to Bullard, personnel law prohibited him from disclosing to the public issues regarding the performance of employees. Bullard did not specifically site the laws for basis of his claim.

On the separate public records request it took General Council Bullard nearly 4 weeks to produce a copy of single contract. New Hanover County Country School Policy 9020 on Access to Public Records requires staff to provide the requested information "within three (3) business days or provide a written response stating the reason for denial or delay of the request."   

It should be a red flag when two of the top officials in our school system disagree on how public records request are to be handled. The way in which these public records request are being handled is a disservice to the public and violate the spirit of our states open records law.