Massive Public Records Request Underway in Central

By Dave Freneaux

As of the writing of this article, over 2,000 copies of documents have been given by the City of Central to Mike Mannino, a private Central citizen, and Louis "Woody" Jenkins, a Baton Rouge resident who owns and publishes the Central City News.  The six "Public Records Requests" which initiated this unofficial investigation were given by Mr. Mannino to the City on July 28th and August 2nd.  The requests were essentially for all of Central's records relating to attorney fees, dealings with CH2M HILL, all financial records, all information regarding the Central Transition District, and copies of all e-mails.  Mannino also made a similar request of the Central Community School Board for records relating to attorney fees.
 
On Friday, July 30th, Mr. Mannino, accompanied by Mr. R.J. Saucier of Central and Mr. Jenkins of Baton Rouge, began their review of records at City Hall with an attorney and observers on hand to oversee the integrity of the records produced.  The portion of the records reviewed on that day were primarily those relating to the Central Transition District, which was a legal taxing authority set up by the legislature so that the newly formed City of Central could receive tax monies from EBR Parish.  Mr. Mannino shared later that he initially had no awareness of the existence of this organization, and that while Mr. Jenkins brought the District to his attention, Mr. Mannino made the decision to include these records in his request.  During Friday's review of the Central Transition District's records Mr. Jenkins requested copies of the entire 733 pages of documents and stated that he would pay for those copies and share with Mr. Mannino whatever records he needed.

The process has continued each day this week and a total of 2,020 documents had been provided to Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Mannino as of Tuesday afternoon.  Many other documents were still in the process of being retrieved, printed, reviewed by legal counsel, and prepared for Mr. Mannino's review.  The requestor of records pays 25 cents per copy, totalling $505 as of Tuesday, The City of Central bears the cost of legal counsel to review documents and oversee the process, and time spent by staff gathering and copying the records and monitoring the review at City Hall.
 
Mr. Mannino was open to discussing the whole issue and shared with CentralSpeaks.com his motivation and preparation for this effort.  He stated he has heard many concerns relating to the propriety of Central's government and he felt the best way to address these concerns was to investigate it himself.  Mr. Mannino states that he has no credible evidence of any wrongdoing, but that he has concerns about the way things are handled.  It is his intention to complete his inquiry and fully disclose any material improprieties or to publicly state that he finds the City's records and processes to be in order.  As an explanation of the involvement of Mr. Jenkins, Mannino readily admits he sought the advice of Mr. Jenkins in preparing the records requests since he has experience in these matters.

Reviewing Public Records, (L-R) R.J. Saucier, Mike Mannino & Woody Jenkins, while attorney Ross Dooley represents the City of Central in the process.