UO Matters

Daniel Libit has won many public records lawsuits against the athletic department at the University of New Mexico, his alma mater, trying to bring some light to their various athletics scandals. He’s recently gone national at “The Intercollegiate”, and asked me to do a podcast about my muckraking experiences with Duck athletics. I’d never even listened to a podcast so of course I said yes, and this is the result:

LATEST PODCAST: In our new, occasional series, “Heretics in the Temple,” @DanielLibit talks w/ Oregon economics professor Bill Harbaugh, the man behind @uomatters, and the so-called “Open-Records King of Eugene.”

iTunes: https://t.co/vWjNiSIpd7

Website: https://t.co/hDV39uji1N pic.twitter.com/GZ2syUOC9n

— The Intercollegiate (@TheIntercollege) January 14, 2020

During the recording of this Daniel asked me about the time – reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education – when UO GC Kevin Reed made this public records request:

From: Kevin Reed <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Public Records – Request for Documents 2017-PRR-172
Date: February 3, 2017 at 3:04:14 PM PST
To: William Harbaugh <[email protected]>
Cc: Public Record Requests <[email protected]>

Senate President Harbaugh:

In answer to your questions:

1) I seek all communications concerning or mentioning the STC you made in your capacity as an officer of the University Senate (Vice President, President or member or Chair of the STC), regardless of which media or device you sued for your communication.
2) No. I do not believe FIRE or SPLC qualify as “media.” If it helps in narrowing the search, please feel free to limit my request to communications with reporters, editors or other personnel associated with the Register Guard, the Oregonian, the Daily Emerald, The Chronicle of Higher Education or Inside Higher Ed.

But, given that you have shared that you correspond with FIRE, I will make the additional request under the Oregon Public Records Law:

Please share any communications you have had with persons associated with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education in the past 12 months, made in your capacity as an officer of the University Senate or member of any of its committees, which communications relate to or concern freedom of speech or academic freedom at the University of Oregon.

Kevin S. Reed | Vice President and General Counsel
Office of the General Counsel
219 Johnson Hall | Eugene, OR 97403-1226
(541) 346-3082 | [email protected]

(Yes, of course I sent him the records, at no charge, and then I sent his emails to the reporters. They laughed and then reported on it, as reporters will do.)

I told Daniel that I thought Kevin’s records request – which he clearly made as UO General Counsel, twice – was “illegal”. I’m no lawyer, but that seems like a reasonable conclusion given that the first page of the free online Oregon Attorney General’s Public Records and Meetings Manual says:

I. PUBLIC RECORDS A. WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO INSPECT PUBLIC RECORDS?

Under Oregon’s Public Records Law, “every person” has a right to inspect any nonexempt public record of a public body in Oregon. This right extends to any natural person, any corporation, partnership, firm or association, and any member or committee of the Legislative Assembly. However, a public body may not use the Public Records Law to obtain public records from another public body. Similarly, a public official, other than a legislator, acting within an official capacity may not rely on the Public Records Law to obtain records, although the individual could do so in an individual capacity. This does not prevent a public body from sharing records with other public bodies; it merely prevents a public body from using Public Records Law as a mechanism to obtain the desired records. [emphasis added] …

Sensibly, Daniel reached out to General Counsel Kevin Reed for his thoughts on this before including my comment in his podcast. Reed strenuously objected to my opinion of his public records request:

On Jan 13, 2020, at 4:59 PM, Kevin Reed <[email protected]> wrote:

Daniel:

I say that the use of the word “illegal” is an absurd stretch, not that the AG’s position (which I took 10 years ago) is absurd.  Please don’t misquote me.

And saying that a lawyer has broken the law is not subject to “interpretation.”  If your publication has counsel, I suggest you check with them.  If you choose to defame me in your publication, you do so at your own peril.

Kevin S. Reed | Vice President and General Counsel

Office of the General Counsel

219 Johnson Hall | Eugene, OR 97403-1226

(541) 346-3082 | [email protected]

generalcounsel.uoregon.edu

“Your own peril”. Yikes.

So, I want to thank Daniel for deciding to redact my comments on Kevin’s public records  request from the podcast, and saving me the trouble of having to deal with still more peril from UO’s General Counsel.

Full email exchanges between Reed and Libit below the break. Poorly formatted, sorry.