Last February, I requested that I receive a copy of all material sent to the Kettering Board of Education members and, since February, at the time of each board meeting I have received a packet of material for which I have paid 5 cents a page.  Some of that material I have posted here.

Yesterday, I heard from the district treasurer, Steve Clark, that this practice would be discontinued, because he discovered that according to Ohio Revised Code, I cannot request future records, I can only request records already in existence.  I telephoned Clark and he said he was alerted to his error by a Kettering board member who informed him that the current arrangement to provide me with public documents was exceeding the requirement of the Ohio Revised Code.  He writes (below): “The definition of a public record is ‘a record kept by any public office.’  A record which does not yet exist does not meet this definition.”

I told Clark that, of course, I could simply make a request each month for the material, but that this might mean that by the time I actually received a copy of these public records, some of the material might no longer be current.  My intent is to keep up to date with the thinking and actions of the board.   I believe public records should not only be available, but available in a timely manner.   This is a reasonable request and so I hope the Kettering Board will comply.

Below is Mr. Clark’s e-mail and my reply:

Mike,

In February, 2010 you requested copies of “all reports, letters, memos and e-mails provided to Kettering School Board Members that are designated in law as public information.”  It was my understanding that you were requesting copies of all future reports, letters, memos and e-mails provided to the Board of Education.

However, a further review of the Ohio Revised Code indicates that a request for access to public records must relate to records currently in existence.  The definition of a public record is “a record kept by any public office.”  A record which does not yet exist does not meet this definition.

We will not be sending records in the future in response to your request that do not currently exist.  Please accept my apology for incorrectly interpreting the Ohio Public Records law at the time of your request.

Steve Clark

Steve,

Since February, at the time of each meeting of the Kettering Board of Education, I have been receiving a copy of the packet of materials provided to each Kettering Board member.  My request in February was that each packet contain a copy of all reports, letters, memos and e-mails shared by board members generated in the time period from when the previous packet was prepared.  My intent is to keep informed in a timely manner of all communications made to this public board.  Your e-mail (copied below) indicates that you’ve discovered that this February request exceeds the requirement outlined in Ohio Revised Code, and, that, therefore, your honoring of this request exceeds your authority as an employee of the board.  I appreciate your informing me of this discovery.

It sounds like that a public body, if it chose to do so, could implement a strategy of delay as a means to frustrate the process of making public records available in a timely manner.  I am confident that the Kettering Board has no such strategy.  I am copying this e-mail to Jim Trent, Board President, and the other board members, and I am requesting that the board approve the current practice of my receiving a packet, in a timely manner,  containing a copy of all reports, letters, memos and e-mails provided to the board in the time period from when the previous packet was prepared.

Thank you.

Mike Bock

I wrote a response to David Esrati’s article,  “Perot Was Right.” My point is that for a movement to have any power, it must be seen as winnable.  The idea of starting a third party sounds, to me, well meaning, but a loser — tilting at windmills — idea.  Who wants to get on a train to nowhere?  Starting a third party sounds like something that would be awfully hard to accomplish.  I’m thinking there is a big group of citizens who could be inspired to dedicate some time and energy to activism — but they are looking for something doable.

My point is that the problem is not that there are only two parties, the problem is that the parties are corrupt and anti-democratic in their operation.  Transforming the political parties we already have, I feel, is key to vitalizing our democracy:  And, unlike the goal of starting a third part, the goal of transforming the current parties, I feel, could inspire an authentic grassroots movement.  I wrote at Esrati’s:

There are only 360 precincts in Montgomery County and each precinct may choose one delegate.  We simply need to raise up a vision of how an authentic democratic community — a transformed Montgomery County Democratic Party — would operate, sell that vision to the Democrats in Montgomery County, and get a delegate to run in each precinct to support a plan for transformation.  We have four years to get all of this accomplished.  Doable.

I’m looking for several long term projects to develop on this web-site, and Step One, for this project, asks that someone accomplish a giant step:  Develope a vision of a transformed Montgomery County Democratic Party, one that would operate as an authentic democratic community. Such a giant step seems a worthy goal and maybe it can be my second book — after this one is completed:  Kettering Public Education In The Year 2022: How Do We Get To A Great Future?

According to Wikipedia: An operating system (OS) is a set of system software programs in a computer that regulate the ways application software programs use the computer hardware and the ways that users control the computer.

It is interesting to think in terms of systems. Every person has a body, and the body is a system. How to manage the human system so that an individual enjoys the optimum output of health and vitality is a central question of medicine and education. We are far from understanding what the human OS actually is, or how it works, what it is that regulates our ways and makes us who we are.

It’s interesting to attempt to see society as a system and to take the viewpoint of an anthropologist and attempt to understand how the operating system of our society actually works. W. Edwards Deming, the “quality” genius, liked to ask a CEO, whether, or not, his or her company was a “system.” Sure, he said, you have meetings, and goals, and quotas, and people running around, and phones ringing, but, Are You A System? Or are you simply a collection of individual profit centers?

Dayton, Ohio, I’d say, also fails Deming’s definition of “system.” Dayton stays as it is because of inertia, and because a lot of stake holders, individual profit centers, like the way things are. And Dayton is no different from Kettering and every other area.  Our public school organization, I’d say, also fails Deming’s definition of “system,” and again, is a collection of individual profit centers, resistant to change.

If our region will ever grow into its potential, we are in need of huge transformations and transformation is usually powerfully resisted by the status quo. The need to transform our system of public education is a powerful example of the need for system reform, and also a powerful example of how individual profit centers in the status quo resist transformation.

Our challenge is to find a way to get a powerful Operating System called democracy to become functional. But, to have democracy, you must have community — and that’s the hard part. Just like the fact that the OS for a computer has no meaning unless it is functional in a computer, democracy has no meaning unless it is rooted in community. And community is lacking. Here in Kettering, I am continually shocked how tiny the group is that shows up to League of Women Voters “meet the candidates” public meetings — and those who do show up are not the “community,” but friends and family of the candidates.  It’s a good question:  Where is the Kettering community?

Creating authentic community is the challenge.

Luckily this huge obstacle — the lack of community — is more overcomable here in 2010 than in any previous time. We have powerful and inexpensive tools of technology needed to educate ourselves and to social network and effectively work together. We simply need leadership and a vision of what is possible.

The OS in DaytonOS suggests a grandiose thought — that this little web-site might help vitalize the operating system called democracy in the Dayton region. I’m working on a plan for DaytonOS for this fall season, and I will report soon.

See:  How Can The System Known As The United States Be Made To Work To Provide “Liberty and Justice For All”?