Resident protests Town of Saratoga

On Monday morning, those driving up and down 1st Street in Saratoga likely saw an uncommon sight as a local resident held a protest outside Saratoga Town Hall.

Wearing a bright yellow coat and carrying a pink sign, Jimmy Dempsey called for Mayor Chuck Davis to remove Town Clerk Jennifer Anderson for “neglecting her duty.” On his sign, Dempsey cited section 02.08.020 of Saratoga Municipal Code. This section of the code reads that all town employees may be dismissed by the mayor and council, with the exception of the town clerk, town treasurer, chief of police, attorney and municipal judge. These employees can only be dismissed by the mayor “for incompetency or neglect of duty.”

According to Dempsey, his issue with Anderson pertains to a request for emails of town staff and elected officials.

“The city website doesn’t include the town officials or anybody in that office’s email address to contact them,” said Dempsey. “So, I emailed her asking if she could send me a list of the email addresses and she pretty much gave me the runaround. You should be able to get a hold of the mayor by email or the public works guy by email. It’s 2024.”

According to Chris Wages, attorney for the Wyoming Press Association, some states do have a requirement that local government bodies post on their website some way for members of their public to communicate with their elected officials. Wyoming Statute, said Wages, does not address this issue.

While the Town of Saratoga website (www.townofsaratoga.org) does not include individual emails for elected officials or town staff, it does provide some avenue for contact. Indeed, under the “Administration” page one can find a link which reads “Email the Town Hall.”

“All I want is a little transparency. The corresponding email she emailed me back, she didn’t say ‘Hey, you need to do a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request’ and she should have. Right there is neglect,” said Dempsey. “She should know right off the bat, I’m going to need you to do a FOIA request and she didn’t have me do that. It was pretty much backwards. So, here we are.”

Dempsey further claimed Anderson had been giving him “the runaround” and had failed to meet either the seven day or 30 day request under the Wyoming Public Records Act.

According to Wyoming State Statute 16-4-202©(i), the custodian of records must notify someone who has requested public records within seven days of the request if the records are in active use or storage and unavailable. Additionally, section 16-4-202©(iii) reads that all public records must be released within 30 days of the original receipt of a request for public records.

It should be noted that, under the Wyoming Public Records Act, “the governmental entity may make rules and regulations with reference to the inspection of the records as is reasonably necessary for the protection of the records and the prevention of unnecessary interference with the regular discharge of the duties of the governmental entity.”

It should be further noted that, under the same act, a governmental entity may make rules and regulations regarding the inspection of records to prevent “unnecessary interference with the regular discharge of the duties” of the entity.

Dempsey also took issue with the Town of Saratoga charging him for his public records request.

“They have a resolution in Saratoga, I don’t know who let that happen, that you got to pay for records,” said Dempsey. “Tax dollars go into everything in there, so they should already be paid for. Why do I have to pay another amount for records in an email form?”

Under section 16-4-202(d)(i) of the Wyoming State Statutes, “the reasonable costs of producing a copy of the public record shall be borne by the party making the request. The costs may include the cost of producing a copy of the public record and the cost of constructing the record, including the cost of programming and computer services.”

A fee schedule was adopted by the Town of Saratoga in 2019 with the passage of Resolution 2019-08. Under this resolution, production and construction costs include $15.50 per hour for clerical staff time, $30 per hour for information technology staff time and $40 per hour for professional staff time.

The Saratoga Sun reached out to Anderson via email regarding Dempey’s public records requests.

“We are still in the process of producing this public records request,” replied Anderson. “We are in compliance with our Town Resolution 2019-08 as well as the Public Records Act.”