Legitimate bureaucrat

A bureaucrat employed by taxpayers has decided she has the right to define 'legitimate groups' in her effort to control information that doesn't belong to her. She's flat wrong and ought to be severely reprimanded. A second instance should mean the loss of her job.

John Rodgers at the City Paper quotes from an e-mail from Emily Richard at the Department of Revenue calling the Tennessee Center for Policy Research 'not a legitimate group'. That's not her call to make. Sadly, she's got the full backing of her Bredesen appointed boss Regan Farr and the department's attorney.

[Reagan Farr, the new commissioner of the Department of Revenue] said TCPR did not follow “the proper channels” by not directing all of their inquiries to Richard, the department’s spokeswoman. He said TCPR representatives were calling different employees of the Department of Revenue and not specifically working through Richard.

(snip)

“As long as they refuse to follow the proper procedures to obtain information, we’re not going to deal with them,” Farr said.

See, this is what we get when we put political party affiliation ahead of public service. The public service goes out the window. What real concern is it of theirs who is asking for the information or what their reason for wanting it is? Further if the asker isn't following the rules you don't deny them the information you take their request and put it in the system. If the system has decided that certain citizens aren't worthy of information, as it appears Ms Richard has, what other recourse does a citizen have except to circumvent the system?

You want proof that TCPR is a legitimate watchdog group? Here you have it. They've uncovered a group of people who have forgotten that they're supposed to be serving the public. The next question is what else does the Department of Revenue not want us to know?

Put a TCPR 'college kid' to work and donate here.