Maybe Gov. John Carney thinks that autocracy is the way all the cool guys are governing these days so he’ll give it a try. Why else would his administration be so concentrated on keeping its workings — and those of its predecessor — a secret from the people who elected him and pay their salaries?
If you don’t work downtown or live in Wilmington you probably haven’t heard or thought much about whether DART uses Rodney Square as a bus hub, as it has for decades. Under pressure from the corporations whose offices front the square, who didn’t like looking at the sort of people who depend on public transportation, DART is decentralizing that hub, meaning people who have mobility issues have to walk two or three blocks to make a transfer.
Public advocates understandably are upset, and they want to know why this decision was made, so they FOIAed the governor’s email correspondence on the issue. Carney’s office replied by sending them a ream of documents with nearly every word redacted. I don’t know if they had the stones to charge for printing the pages as they usually do; the story doesn’t say but I’ll bet they sent a bill.
The administration made a claim of “executive privilege” — a legal theory with no Constitutional basis, either at the federal or state level. The newspaper does an excellent job of inveighing against it, but Carney in essence is daring the public to do something about it. That would mean a lawsuit, and since the state gets free representation, it would have to be filed by someone or some group with deep pockets. Just by the by, when Chip Flowers filed suit against this use of FOIA, the state paid him $22,500 rather than open then-Gov. Markell’s email account, so they must be at least a bit worried about whether this would hold up under litigation.
Lost in the legalities is the bus battle, which matters a lot more to the people it affects. I can see both sides of the argument — little old ladies who take 30 seconds to hobble down the bus steps can’t walk two blocks, but constant bus traffic degrades what should be a city showplace. The obvious solution would be a bus hub somewhere else. But that would cost money, and instead of looking at it as an opportunity to create jobs, the state sees it as a needless expense (as if paying lawyers is a better use of the money).
In short, there’s a solution to the underlying problem, but it won’t take shape until someone applies some green balm to the problem.