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Bauer Records II: Battle of the Release Forms

June 24th, 2009 OPAdmin Leave a comment Go to comments

JDNews is reporting that the City and Bauer are at a stalemate over the release.

The City Attorney says the release includes a clause that asks for too much.  In the release Bauer states:

“I specifically do not waive my right to privacy with regard to, or any right to seek recourse for, any false, malicious or slanderous comments from city officials or any cause of action that I may have or may arise from the actions of individual City Council members. ”

Frustrating.  It doesn’t seem necessary from either perspective.  Release the minutes from the closed sessions. Comments from city officials seem superfluous to that matter.

Because of the release of the text message (a rather unclassy move, in my opinion), I think we’re well into the realm where the records may be released because of a lack of public confidence without a release by Bauer.

Here’s how I would settle the matter:  I would find a release form recommended by the School of Government and used by another city in NC.  I think this is what the City Attorney is doing.

Categories: City of Jacksonville Government
  1. LouFCD
    July 1st, 2009 at 22:01 | #1
    Reply | Quote

    Though I’m actually a few blocks outside the city limits, I have to say I’m very much interested in knowing exactly what went on.

    By most accounts, and from what I saw of him on G10, he was certainly capable and competent. I’d like to know what the firing was really about. As it stands, the impression I have, not from Bauer but from remarks like “chance after chance”, is that he was fired for not giving answers those four council members wanted to hear.

    It did seem odd and out of character for the text messages to come up. It seems a complete non-sequitur. Why did he bring *those* up? Bauer does not strike me as a man who’d do that out of petulance or revenge. I think there will be a bit of a surprise when the reasoning behind that becomes clear.

    Then again, he’s human like the rest of us. And after having just been shat upon by the council after busting his ass for the city, maybe he was just plain pissed off. Can’t really blame him for that, either.

    Cheers

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