The Great Gadfly

Building Commish Keeps File Under Wraps

Building Commish Keeps File Under Wraps
Public records elude citizen’s inspection

By Peter Kenney

“I’ll see if he’s in his office.”

These words, heard over a telephone, are as chilling and bleak as “I'll have to put you on hold for a minute" or, in an electronic drone, "XYZ appreciates your business. Our next customer service representative will be with you shortly. The average wait time today is three-and-a-half hours."

We’ll call back

I knew I was in trouble when I made the first of four calls to Yarmouth Town Hall on a recent Thursday morning. At 9:00 a.m. I got a recorded message asking me to leave my name and telephone number, advising me that my call would be returned. It was not. I was calling the Building Commissioner's office.

The reason for my call was simple. I wanted to know why the Yarmouth Building Commissioner had not wanted to give a copy of public records to a citizen. The reason for my call was simple. I wanted to know why the Yarmouth Building Commissioner had not wanted to give a copy of public records to a citizen. The details and names of the parties involved are not appropriate for publication at this point. But a Yarmouth resident had gone in person to the Building Commissioner's office and asked for a copy of each of several building permits taken out over the past few years by another person for work to be performed in Yarmouth.

The Building Commissioner asked why the requesting party wanted the records. What is the legal basis for him to ask such a thing? I can find none. At a later date he was asked again and he said he would have to charge for the time to "research" and copy the documents.

Are things different in Yarmouth?

My experience with various town halls when it comes to getting copies of documents is that a helpful person goes to the files, finds the document(s) I want, makes the copies and hands them to me. Sometimes there is a fee of a few cents per copy. Apparently, Jim Brandolini, the Yarmouth Building Commissioner, has a different idea about what his responsibilities and rights are.

Back to the telephone calls. I heard nothing from Yarmouth Town Hall so I called again shortly after noon. This time the same pleasant voice I had heard on the earlier recording said, "If you wait just a minute, Mr. Kenney, I'll see if he's in his office." I waited.

The cheery voice returned and asked, "Jim wants to know if he can call you later." I said yes and made sure she had the number. Oddly, I received no call. So, at 3:40 p.m., I called the building commissioner's number again and spoke again with the cheery voice. She asked me to wait just a minute.

She returned shortly to say that Jim wants to know if he could meet with me in his office on the twenty-first or the twenty-second (This was January). I said I just wanted to ask him why he was making it so hard for a citizen to get what should be instantly available -- copies of public records.

Then the cheery voice asked if maybe she could help and I told her what I wanted -- copies of certain building permits. She said she would check the file. This time I waited longer than before and when the voice returned I was told, "They must be in Jim's office. I'll check for you."

Under lock and key

When the voice came back on the line she told me that the permits I was looking for were not to be found, that they must be in the file -- which she could not find -- and that the file must be "locked in Jim's desk."

She offered as a reason that, maybe, Jim was working on the file.

Then she told me something surprising. Jim Brandolini was on vacation for all of that week and the next. "He won't be in the office until the twenty-first."

Why hadn't she told me this at noon?

Why had we gone around and around about searching for the file? Why did he want to see me in person to discuss what I thought was a fairly simple matter?

Why, exactly, does Jim Brandolini, in his official capacity as Yarmouth Building Commissioner, resist providing copies of basic public documents to a citizen?

And why does he then go on vacation and leave the entire file for a house -- complete with its history of permits and inspections -- locked away for two weeks, denying anyone and everyone access to the contents of that file?

This may not be Denmark but something is surely rotten. I still want those copies, Jim.