JNS BLOG EXCLUSIVE: JACC Board Member Daniel Rother Cites Records Law, His Campaign On "Livability" Issues

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In an email follow-up to the "board battle" controversy, reported here exclusively, board member Daniel Rother elaborated on...

...some of the controversy in regard to purported "removal" of documents from the JACC office. (This should not be confused with the recent break-in and removal of documents and computers, this was an earlier controversy discussed at the emotional board meeting)

Daniel Rother states he NEVER removed documents, rather he made copies of originals and that was all he left with; copies. Furthermore, he cites Minnesota State Law 317A.461 BOOKS AND RECORDS; FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

In looking at that law, it clearly states "A member or director, or the agent or attorney of a member or director, may inspect all documents referred to in subdivision 1 or 3 for any proper purpose at any reasonable time. A proper purpose is one reasonably related to the person's interest as a member or director of the corporation."

Rother appears to assert copying was part of this "inspection." Laypeople may disagree, but in my observation (and I do have a passion for records law, the very reason I went to law school in the first place) any right to "inspection" has frequently included the right to copy.

And this is made quiet clear by Subd. 5, "Cost of copies" which states, "The corporation may charge the requesting party a reasonable fee to cover the expenses of providing copies of documents under this section."

In my observation, charges for small numbers of copies are simply waived, a lot of the time.

Rother was very restrained in his comments to me, not wanting to go into stuff like "how much money do you think is improperly missing?" or "who do you think was involved in taking the stuff from the office?"

He did state that, despite my editorializing about too much emphasis in Jordan in regard to "social justice" versus "livability" issues, he personally ran for his board position on nothing but livability issues, and was successfully elected. Furthermore, he had poured a great deal of time and effort into a "greenway" project in the neighborhood.

I am hoping to get more details about this greenway project in the near future.