Sunshine Week, an initiative to promote the importance of open government and freedom of information, was celebrated across the U.S. earlier this month.
A group of media outlets sent travel records requests to 18 of the state’s governmental agencies a month ago to test each office’s level of responsiveness. All offices other than the two highest in the state, those of the governor and lieutenant governor, responded promptly. This is yet another demonstration of a lack of leadership from Gov. Pat McCrory.
Media outlets reported that McCrory’s office ignored up to four e-mail requests. There is simply no excuse for McCrory to not have replied at this point, a month after the first request was sent in.
In fact, McCrory’s office was reported to be the least responsive of all those tested. Following the second travel records request, his office responded stating that the first request had been “overlooked.”
This is particularly embarrassing as the request came from six of the state’s most prominent media outlets.
Additionally, the information requested was presumably as innocuous as possible — a simple travel records request. None of the requested information could or would have been used against McCrory by the organizations.
This is a sad indication of a lead-from-behind mentality currently held by those in North Carolina’s highest offices. Constituents deserve and should expect better.
