The Llano Ledger


Newsletter Text V45

This Website Is Full. Starting With The December 25, 2000 Newsletter, All Future Editions Will Be Posted In The Llano Ledger 2, Found By Clicking http://maxpages.com/llanoledger2.

BANNER ADVERTISING PAYS ONLY FOR WEBSITE

SPECIAL NOTICE: Readers are reminded the Buchanan Dam Volunteer Fire Department will be holding a "Community Awareness Day" open house at the Fire Station (across from the Red Barn) on June 25 at 1:00pm. They are in desperate need of financial help. Full details can be found on Information and Services. Support your community. ... The house or business saved some day may indeed be your own.

Publisher's Note: Accessing _The Llano Ledger website without generously providing financial assistance to this non-profit publication not only denies desperately needed funds for investigative expenses, but amounts to theft of this writer's labor. T.C.

*************June 19, 2000************

Most pointedly and quite bluntly, LMHS Administrator/CEO Ernie Parisi apparently wouldn't know truth, honesty, or candor if it bit him hard on the ass. Readers will recall an open records request was sent May 25 and posted in the May 30, 2000 Newsletter. The latest outrageous act of duplicity in the continuing saga is particularly stunning and will become clear as readers carefully examine the following documents:

Ernie Parisi, Administrator/CEO
LMHS
200 West Ollie
Llano, Tx. 78643

Via/Certified Mail/RRR
Mr. Tim Chorney, Publisher
The Llano Ledger
Rt 2, Box 464A
Buchanan Dam, TX. 78609

Re: Public Information Act Request

Dear Mr. Chorney:

Please allow this letter to respond to your Public Information Act request of May 26, 2000 for the following documents:

1. Engineering study conducted by Law Gibb Engineering; and

2. Survey conducted of the Hospital site.

With regard for your request concerning all donor records of Llano Bay Healthcare Inc. please be advised that there are no such donor records as all funds which have been provided to Llano Bay Healthcare, Inc. have been provided by Llano Memorial Hospital Foundation.

The two documents referenced above will be available for your review and inspection at the administrative offices of Llano Memorial Healthcare System, 200 West Ollie, Llano, Texas on June 23, 2000 at 11:00AM.

Sincerely,
Ernie Parisi
Administrator/CEO

The date of the open records request was May 25, 2000 and not May 26, 2000 as asserted in Mr. Parisi's letter. The Public Information Act allows 10 business days for officials to respond to an open records request. Uncharacteristically for the Administrator, he was late. Very late. So much so, I received an e-mail from Executive Secretary Karen Kinard June 14 containing a copy of Parisi's letter. The formal document, however, arrived the next day via certified mail. The following e-mail was quickly sent in response:

(June 15, 2000)
Ernie Parisi, Administrator
LMHS
103 West Lampasas
Llano, Tx. 78643

Re: June 14, 2000 Open Records Response

Dear Mr. Parisi:

In clarification of your June 14, 2000 open records response, are you asserting there are no Marble Falls Community Hospital donor records? Let's not play semantic games, sir. It is common knowledge there have been ongoing fundraising efforts for the new Hospital. Recently, KHLB in fact broadcast a report regarding these activities. Was the story false?

While your views of this publication or writer are irrelevant, your apparent lack of respect for the intelligence of my readers is stunning. According to the AG Handbook, Hospital donor records are not protected from disclosure. ... No matter where you try to hide them, sir. No matter what linguistic or semantic games you choose to play. While the shell game is indeed interesting and amusing, the issue will certainly be forced. A related open records request is in the mail.

Although deeply grateful for the fodder, is your loss of credibility worth the continued stonewalling? Kindly understand this publication has no interest in publishing personal donor data and has even delayed posting previously released sensitive LMHS financial information in an effort to provide no advantage to Hospital competitors. The money trail, however, will be carefully scrutinized, Mr. Parisi, nonetheless. Your continued obfuscation only further strengthens resolve.

Sincerely,
Tim Chorney, Publisher
The Llano Ledger
http://maxpages.com/llanoledger
Rt 2 Box 464A
Buchanan Dam, Tx. 78609

Placing additional pressure on the Administrator, the following open records request was snail-mailed the same day:

Ernie Parisi, Administrator
LMHS
103 West Lampasas
Llano, Tx. 78643

Tim Chorney, Publisher
The Llano Ledger
http://maxpages.com/llanoledger
Rt 2 Box 464A
Buchanan Dam, Tx. 78609

Re: Open Records Request

June 15, 2000

This is a request for information under the Public Information Act, Ch.552, Gov't Code, Public Information. Access to following documents is respectfully requested:

1. All donor records of the Llano Memorial Hospital Foundation.

Sincerely,
Tim Chorney, Publisher
The Llano Ledger
cc: File

Most pointedly and quite outrageously, while Mr. Parisi in his June 14 letter denied the existence of the donor records requested in the May 25 open records request, his legal beagle, Fletcher H. Brown of Davis & Wilkerson had already filed a request for an exception ruling dated June 12, 2000 with the Open Records Division. Apparently, LMHS is seeking an exception to disclosure regarding the supposedly non-existent donor records. Interesting, isn't it? 'Ain't' hypocrisy grand? The Administrator's duplicity is indeed stunning.

Since Mr. Brown has not yet sent a copy of the request as required by statute, any further commentary would be inappropriate. The following letter, however, received June 17 from the Open Records Division is notice of the request filed by LMHS counsel:

Office of the Attorney General
Open Records Division

Date: June 16, 2000

Please deliver to: Fletcher H. Brown, Davis & Wilkerson

Facsimile number: (512)482-0614

Re: Public information request

This will acknowledge receipt of your correspondence dated 06/12/2000, in which you request an open records decision regarding certain records requested by Tim Chorney. Your correspondence has been assigned ID#138046. Please reference this ID# in the event you send any further correspondence regarding this matter.

Reminder: The Public Information Act provides specific deadlines for the submission of certain materials to this office. If you have not already done so, you must submit to this office within ten business days of your receipt of the open records request the applicable exceptions for withholding the requested information. Gov't Code Ch.552.301(b). Also within ten business days of your receipt of the open records request, you must provide the requestor with 1) a written statement that you wish to withhold the requested information and have asked for an attorney general decision and 2) a copy of your written communication to the attorney general asking for a decision. Gov't Code Ch.552.301(d). Lastly, if release of a person's proprietary information is implicated, you must notify that person in writing of the request for an attorney general decision within ten business days of your receipt of the open records request and include the information mandated by Gov't Code Ch. 552.305(d)(2). A person who receives a notification under section 552.305 must submit the reasons and arguments for withholding the information within ten business days of the person's receipt of the section 552.305 notice. Gov't Code Ch.552.305(d)(2)(B).

If you have not already done so, you must submit to this office within fifteen business days of your receipt of the open records request 1) a copy of the written request you received, 2) a signed statement or sufficient evidence showing the date you received the written request, 3) an explanation as to why the exceptions you have raised apply to those records, and 4) a copy of the requested documents with markings to indicate the precise information that you consider to be protected by the particular exceptions you have raised. Gov't Code Ch. 552.301(e). If the documents are numerous or repetitive, you may submit representative samples.

The requestor or any interested party may submit written comments. Gov't Code Ch.552.304. Written comments must be submitted as soon as possible and prior to this office's issuance of a ruling.

cc: Mr. Tim Chorney
Llano Ledger
Rt. 2, Box 464A
Buchanan Dam, Tx. 78609

Although the growing readership is sadly unwilling to financially support this publication, there is a pressing need for stamps, business envelopes, and typing or copier paper to continue required correspondence with the Open Records Division and targeted governmental bureaucrats. Anyone willing to generously donate these required supplies? -- Or is even this too much to ask of the readership?

Since the point has been finally driven home to readers and the County Judge, the earlier pounding regarding a lack of financial support for this publication is no longer necessary. The truth, however, is still the truth, -- and it isn't very pretty nor will it be muzzled by our self-serving officials. With that in mind, the visitor count stands in excess of 18,800.

Another excellent week. With rare exception, however, this publication receives no financial support from the readership it serves due to greed, gut-wrenching fear, and the continuing intimidation of our abusive officials. Regardless, _The Llano Ledger remains beholden to NO ONE, and will continue to firmly and aggressively hold the feet of our worst offenders to the fire, -- with or without the financial support of the community.

Tim Chorney, Publisher
_The Llano Ledger



Tim Chorney, Publisher
P.O. Box 997
Buchanan Dam Tx. 78609

llanoledger@mailcity.com

Page Updated Tue Oct 9, 2001 1:13pm EDT