May 23, 2011: I file a Right to Know Law request with Controller Steve Barron, asking for copies of all correspondence, including emails, concerning unions, Gracedale and his latest crusade over asbestos. Although he is an independently elected official, he has no designated RTKL officer, nor is one identified on the County web page, as required by law.May 26, 2011: Barron von Footinmouth's Solicitor, Tim Brennan, writes to tell me he is the open records officer. He immediately invokes the 30-day extension permitted by law.
June 24, 2011, 7:36 PM: Barronn refuses to produce the following:
- A 2/10 email from Barron to Gracedale Initiative Committee lawyer Larry Otter, in which Barron spills his guts and gives expert opinions and everything.
- A 3/7 email exchange between Barron and his Solicitor concerning the legal bills for Gracedale.
- A 3/31 email exchange between Barron and Council member Lamont McClure concerning their Gracedale strategy, and in which Barron apparently leaks information from his office.
- A 4/15 email exchange involving Barron, McClure, Gracedale lawyer Larry Otter and Solicitor Tim Brennan, concerning their Gracedale strategy, in which more information is leaked.
- A 4/16 continuation of the email exchange involving Barron, McClure and Otter, in which Barron is now leaking worse than my Jeep's gas tank.
- A 5/5 email exchange with Gracedale lawyer Larry Otter, in which Barron is apparently leaking his own investigation.
- He refuses to produce his email exchanges with union officials, County Council members as well as members of the Gracedale initiative committee. He claims they are really just mass emails. So what? I see no exception for that in the RTKL.
Barron does supply me with a few little juicy tidbits, here and there. It's pretty clearly that County Council President John Cusick and member Tom Dietrich were intent on embarrassing Ron Angle, and attempted to recruit Barron to come to a Dietrich committee and mouth off about Angle when he was absent.
Naturally, I intend to appeal this to the Office of Open Records. Also, since some of this information is discoverable and the Gracedale suit is still open, I'll just subpoena the email exchanges specific to Gracedale.
Maybe that's what I should have done in the first place.
Bernie what exactly is the deal with this guy? For someone who is believed to be picked to advance to higher positions, he doesn't seem to get it.
ReplyDeleteIs he smarter than everyone with a secret strategy? Does he just feel he is above the Law? Or is he just a self-absorbed ego maniac that has an ego that his brain can't back up.
He is a mystery. I can't even figure out how he ever got elected in the first place. Didn't you vehemently support and endorse him at one time?
The Third Ear
Yep. He had me fooled.
ReplyDeleteSome folks pay thousands for the constant publicity this guy gets.
ReplyDeleteI think you may be grasping at NOTHING!
ReplyDeleteYou're easily fooled and have wacky judgment.
ReplyDeleteThe Barron is a back-stabbing buffoon. He is tenaciously guarding his e-mails because they will provide more evidence of this fact. And add hypocrite to his list of character flaws. He is a champion for "open government" except when it involves him.
ReplyDeleteBackstabbers are dupicitious, calculating, amoral. Buffoons are stumbling simpletons.
ReplyDeleteIn your zeal to get at Barron, you neglect to tell us which of these two types he is.
I doubt any e-mail will be able to reconcile this conundrum.
Bernie, you never bothered to tell us why you want to read Barron's e-mails, but not Angle's or Dent's. Or are they next? Do they have something juicy that you're sitting on, waiting for the right time to expose it?
ReplyDeleteI think we should be told. What exactly has you so excited about Angle and Dent's e-mail that you're using Barron as a trial run to get your procedures down right. Don't want to slip up with a member of congress, do you? Or even Rollicking Ron!
Is there someone on the other side running for office in opposition to this idiot union boss.
ReplyDeleteSteve Salvesen.
ReplyDelete"Bernie, you never bothered to tell us why you want to read Barron's e-mails, but not Angle's or Dent's."
ReplyDeleteAngle has no email.
liar, angle has an e-mail address.. once again, you r a liar!!
ReplyDeleteI repeat, Angle has no email. The addy you are talking about was set up by his kids, who are computer literate. But Ron is not and has no intention of starting now. I think I know a little more about Angle and his habits than you do. The fact that Larry Otter continually sends stuff to an account that Angle never uses is no proof that the account is used by Angle.
ReplyDeleteBarron is a cartoon character who has lost all credibility with the public and his staff. He realizes that his emails will further reveal his childish, partisan nature. He is imposing a "kilt of secrecy" over his transmissions. Lift that kilt BO!
ReplyDeleteSo now all children are partisans.
ReplyDeleteGod, but you right wing nut jobs are such haters. Is there any low you wouldn't stoop to in your smear first, ask questions later fervor to get a guy who simply has a different point of view to you?
Please publish them in detail. His third grade style book should be quite humorous and well worth the read.
ReplyDeleteAre we still beating this old dead horse, the people have spoken....move on and accept the loss.
ReplyDeleteSeamus
Put da baby in ma belly!!I want the baby. I love ma baby back, baby back, baby back ribs!
ReplyDeleteWhere is dat baby!!!
Publish the letters.
ReplyDeletePlease publish upskirt photos to prove once and for all he has no balls.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it already obvious?
ReplyDeleteAnon 10:25- a disturbing image.
ReplyDeleteAnd anon 4:40 what the hell are you implying? Barren is a sniveling, coniving fool. But we right wingers love him for being such a convenient foil.
And he has such great staff whom he has shamed....
ReplyDeleteThis guy will be the next county executive. You are boned when that happens O'Hare!
ReplyDeleteAre you suggesting retaliation for my exercise of my First Amendment rights?
ReplyDeleteWhere is dat baby? Put da baby in ma belly now!!!
ReplyDeleteAn outsider would find it impossible to decide what this guy Barron had been convicted of by the star chamber of semi literate right wing nut jobs. Half baked invective, racial slurs, and personal attacks that the cowards would never deliver to his face, yes! Critiques of genuine transgressions, no!
ReplyDeleteSo he wears a kilt on special occasions and has a lisp, or whatever. How does this make him a figure of fun?
If you right wing nut jobs want people to take you seriously, be serious.
Barron to romp home in November, proving how out of touch all you guys on the far right are, and in what contempt you hold the electorate.
In the past you posted documents. Publish the emails, scared people will read for themselves?
ReplyDeleteWhat is it Bernie is looking for in these e-mails? I'm confused, and I know I'm probably not the only one of the 14 people who are following this to be confused. Is this a fishing expedition?
ReplyDeleteBarron is a veritable boy scout, doesn't smoke, drinks maybe two beers a year, is a devoted husband and father, and cares about the condition of the not so fortunate, low paid workers, the seniors clinging on to their nursing home and their medicare, children wanting a decent education to give them half a chance in life....
What is it about this that so scares all you haters? That the best you guys can come up with is that he's a little overweight, has a lisp, and sometimes wears a kilt?
Try telling that to those people who all right wingers hate, the voters trying to make ends meet in an economy that seems to be slipping away from them.
Hey, I'm confused as well. Why does Angle have an e-mail account if he never uses e-mail!
ReplyDeleteSounds like the gopher I caught in me lawnmower.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Burnie prints the emails up and reads them to Boss Hog at night, for a bed time story!
ReplyDeleteAngle does NOT have or use email. That account was set up by his kids and is ignored by him. He does not like or want to use computers and that is his right.
ReplyDeleteBoy scouts don't wear skirts. Those trying to ply Boy Scouts often do.
ReplyDelete@2.46
ReplyDeleteI don't want to know how you know that, but spare the rest of us the sorry details, you sad little sicko.
Barren's physique, speech impediment and kilt aren't why we are making fun of him. His actions and poor judgement have made him the laughing stock of county government. IF he wins in November it will only be by his opponent's indifference, not by the merits of his first term in office, which has been atrocious.
ReplyDeleteYou Baron huggers are missing the point. He is again ignoring the law or is again ignorant of it. It does not matter if Bernie wants to wipe his ass with the emails and memos. The law is clear that Barron must respect the RTKL, he thinks he is above all that.
ReplyDeleteI hope you stay on this Bernie. This clown is an embarrassment not only to the county but to Democrats everywhere.
Oh I am on this and will stay on it.
ReplyDeleteYou are only on this because Mr. Barron made you Angle and Stoffa out to be cheats and liars. Mr. Barron proved that he is a better public servant than the rest of you.
ReplyDeleteHe cares about people and has stood up to the powerful special interest groups.
that pisses you folks off. He can decide if you really need to see the documents you want. he is a better judge of that than you.
Is 2:14 sane or on some sort of hallucinogenic drug?
ReplyDeleteI love this particular picture of fatty Arbuckle
ReplyDelete