Wos: Records requests are 'impactful'
DHHS Secretary Aldona Wos faced tough questions about a news report based on public records requests Tuesday. She used the opportunity to talk about her agency's problems dealing with records requests.
Posted — Updated"It concerns me tremendously when I see us fiddling with the fact," said Sen. Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe.
Wos said she had not seen the N.C. Health News story but said she stood by the audit response she signed off on back in January.
Nesbitt was one of several lawmakers who asked about the report. But it was Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, who gave Wos her opening to speak about public records.
"We received a response from the department," Hise said. "Under a public information request, someone has gone in and asked for every previous iteration of that (response), and now we're coming up and asking why things were redacted before they were sent to the General Assembly. ... Anybody who believes that this came out on the day of this hearing, with multiple members asking questions about it is a coincidence, is living in a fairy tale."
He continued, "I think there is an intent here to inundate the department with public information requests, and when you get to the point where you're questioning why something was deleted from a report at some previous time the report was submitted ... I think you're starting to see a witch hunt."
Hise then asked Wos how much time her agency was spending on answering public information requests.
"Senator, it is becoming impactful," she said. "We have several people who work on this full time, and then we have attorneys inside the department that then, after that information is reviewed, then have to review it to make sure that (nothing legally) has to be redacted. It is very time-consuming for us and is pulling us away from the work we should be doing, whether it's Medicaid reform, whether it's now the federal shutdown, whether it's sequestration ... It is truly taking away time and resources from us doing our jobs."
Nesbitt then pushed back against Hise's assertion, saying he didn't have any idea the N.C. Health News report was coming out.
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