Girls on the run

A Lexington 1 trustee says the district is denying information to do her job.

Board member Jada Garris said the administration denied her access to information about bids, contracts, land acquisition and other financial matters.

Yet Superintendent Gregory Little said the district has given Garris almost everything she has asked for.

The problem, he told the Chronicle, is not access to information but the work required to get it.

“We work to be transparent,” Dr. Little said.

Assistant Attorney General Matt Houck and Solicitor General Bob Cook reviewed her request and said Garris has a right to the information to respond to questions from her constituents.

“She can’t do the job she was elected to without access to such information,” Houck told the Chronicle.

Her search for information began August 18, 2017 when she wrote Dr. Little that “under the SC Freedom of Information Act I am requesting to inspect and make copies of the written report of the Architectural Selection Committee, listing the persons or firms that responded to invitations to submit information and enumerating the reasons of the committee for selecting the particular ones to be interviewed for all architectural awards dating August 25, 2015 – August 25, 2017. I was not given all information related to this.”

“How can members make informed decisions without data?” asked Bill Rogers, executive director of the SC Press Association, an open government advocate. “The public has a right to know how their money is spent.”

Dr. Little said there were 3 ways trustees could get information: To request it through him, with other trustees or by the Freedom of Information Act.

Garris said before she was elected last year, she sent requests as an individual.

“The problem with submitting a FoIA request is that Lexington 1 has proven that if they don’t want to provide the information, they won’t. That’s why I sued them. If the majority of the board members held the district accountable I wouldn’t have had to sue.”