General Counsel Kevin Reed exaggerates cost of providing public records

Reporter Jack Pitcher has a good report on the bad UO Public Records situation, in the Emerald here:

Multiple University of Oregon students were arrested this year, an assistant football coach was paid over $60,000 for less than a week of work and one visit to campus by an author cost UO donors over $40,000. Public records requests help clarify the facts for stories like these.

…. [UO General Counsel Kevin Reed] estimates that it costs “in the neighborhood of $300,000 a year” to operate the public records office. UO isn’t required to operate a public records office, but incurs this expense to make the process of collecting and distributing records more streamlined, according to Reed.

Actually, the public records office’s overall spending (YTD Activity) was only $207,000 for the last full fiscal year (2015-16, amounts below are net). UO’s entire annual spending on public records was less than half of the $465,000 *increase* in what General Counsel Reed spent on operating his own office, in comparison to the prior year:

The GC’s spending on admin salaries alone increased by $310,000 from the previous year, to $1,027,000. On the plus side, they do have a spiffy new website with nice photos.