by the Caledonia Record Editorial Board

This week Judge Mary Miles Teachout ruled the Vermont Attorney General must pay close to $66,000 in legal fees to settle its tab in a number of [E&E Legal] cases in which the AG’s office broke our freedom of information laws…

Heinous Violation 1

In August of 2017, Judge Teachout rejected a bogus effort by the Vermont Attorney General’s office to keep public records secret…

Heinous Violation 2

Last October the Vermont Supreme Court unanimously ruled that public officials cannot end-run public record laws by using private email or cellphones to do public business…

Now we owe thanks to Judge Teachout for a ruling that, in theory, holds the Attorney General accountable for their flaunting the law. The only problem is that by “Attorney General must pay $66,000,” what the judge is really saying is “Vermont taxpayers must pay $66,000.” We think the only way we’d see TRUE open record reform is if Sorrell, Donovan and Griffin were held personally liable for their misdeeds. Then we’d get some transparency.

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