At least one member of the board of supervisors and two county residents have been asking about debt owned by the school board and public service authority in recent months.
In June, District 1’s Andrew Hensley issued a statement that he had been asking for such information since March.
“On March 2, I called the county attorney to ask what the board of supervisors’ legal obligation was to pay PSA and school debt,” Hensley said. “I wanted to know the when, where, and why of this debt, along with who voted for all this debt.”
Hensley continued, “Over the past few months, I’ve asked multiple times, with no answer. I asked tonight after the meeting, and did not get an answer. Since it’s been three months, I thought I’d let the public know that I’ve tried to gain this information. The reason this is important is because the debt makes up approximately 14 percent of the Russell County real estate tax rate.”
Since then, Castlewood’s Daniel Meade and Honaker resident David Miller have both made Freedom of Information Act requests regarding the debt.
While the “when, where and why” remains unanswered, the public now knows how much it will cost to search for such information.
In replying to Meade’s FOIA request, Russell County Administrator Lonzo Lester said, “This request will require many manpower hours and thousands of documents to complete.”
The response to Miller was more specific.
To search for records regarding the PSA’s debt would require two employees working 40 hours a week with a combined labor rate of $35 per hour. FOIA officer review and processing would be another $200. In total, Miller’s FOIA request would cost him $1,600.
The search for school board records would require 35 hours of work at a rate of $43.75 per hour. A two hour review by an attorney would be an additional $400. The process would find Miller paying $1,848.39.
