DeWitt County State’s Atty Koritz: Demand Transparency (but not from me) –

DEWITT CO. (ECWd) –

I recently came across an “Open Letter to the Citizens of DeWitt County” from March 4, 2013 published in the DeWitt Daily News (here) in which the author, DeWitt County State’s Attorney Koritz, asked the citizens to “Demand Transparency”.

“…Demand openness. Demand transparency. Demand that our public officials, myself included, are held accountable for their actions and their leadership...”

While I completely agree with Loritz that citizens should demand transparency, I find it troubling that his own office refuses to be transparent and even assisted other county offices in being less than transparent. Was this simply a smokescreen designed to make people think he was all about openness, transparency and accountability until someone asked a hard question? If not, why was asking for records that pointed to constitutional violations denied?

True transparency means being transparent even when you are not required by law to be transparent – as is the case with the credit card issue and probation department that we wrote about last year (here, here, here, here, here, and here). I know the AG determined those records did not have to be release under FOIA, but please note that nothing forbids release of these records, it simply does not require their release.

So, one more time, I would like to ask DeWitt County’s champion of openness, transparency, accountability, and involvement, Mr. Loritz, to direct Mr. Dunn (if he still works there) to produce the requested records “in the interest of demanding transparency and accountability” as your “open letter” just a few months prior to our discovery of this credit card abuse stated people should demand, and that they should even demand it from you.