While many towns outside the region were reluctant to allow access to public records on file, local town offices, police stations, schools here in the Lake Region were open and willing to comply with requests made this May by the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition.

On May 3, Coalition volunteers secretly tested three town offices, one police department and two school districts in the region, according to a report released this week by the advocacy group of concerned citizens and members of the press.

In this “Public Records Audit,” these volunteers entered town offices, police stations and school administration headquarters and simply requested a public record such as a town’s annual legal expenses.

The Maine Freedom of Access Law dictates that any person may request a public record from a town or state office and be provided that information without inquiry or a request for identification.

Citizens have the same rights as journalists in these requests and any refusal by a public office to provide the information can result in fines.

The Windham Police Department was the only police department tested in the Lakes Region. In the public access inquiry, a citizen auditor asked for the department’s “Police Pursuit Policy.” Though the police officer did ask for the citizen’s identification, he didn’t press the issue when the citizen refused and provided the document.

From the school districts of Windham and SAD 61, auditors asked for both schools’ “Crisis Response Plans” and were allowed access to the document.

Many school districts outside the region outrightly denied the information for confidentiality reasons, even though the document is a public record.

In investigating public access to town records, volunteers asked for the amount of attorney fees paid by the town annually and a list of “tax liens” properties – homes with long-outstanding taxes owed to the town.

In Windham, both requests were met with complete compliance by helpful staff who asked “no questions” of the public record inquiry, according to the audit report.

In Standish, town staff were also willing to provide the information requested. However, in both requests, the town employee asked for the reason the person wanted to see the document. As the audit reported, the inquiry “seemed more out of curiosity than necessity.”

In Raymond, town officials complied with the attorney fees request, but failed to give a list of tax liens properties because the tax collector said “there were none outstanding,” according to the audit report.

This is untrue, said Raymond Town Manager Don Willard, but it seems the failure to comply with the request was due to some confusion over the question.

Tax liens information is not hidden from the public, Willard said, and is made readily available in the annual town report – a book produced each year that summaries town business of the past year. However, the town only updates its list of tax liens properties once a year, and therefore the tax collector didn’t have the current list of tax liens properties available for the auditor.

While Willard understands the purpose of the “Public Records Audit,” he said the audit seems to just embarrass towns that get confused by the requests rather than further the cause of access to public information.

The purpose of the Public Records Audit is not to shame public officials or office, but rather to inform and make sure public records are accessible to all people, said Judy Meyer, audit committee chairwoman for the coalition.

With more citizen participation in this year’s audit, this was a better test of what information is open to the average citizen on any given day, she said.

“(Access to public records) is a citizen’s tool to make sure that government is being accountable to us,” Meyer said. “And it’s one of the only tools we have.”