On August 16 Buddy Hemric, who has long been active in conservative, pro-taxpayer causes, requested that the Iredell-Statesville Schools provide information on how the system intended to spend proceeds from the October 11 bond.

The following day, ISS Public Information Director Maureen Moore sent Hemric an e-mail which said, “I have asked the chairperson, Mr. RB Sloan, for Citizens for a Brighter Future to get in contact with you.”

Sloan is not an employee of the school system. “Citizens for a Brighter Future” is a political group campaigning for passage of the school bond.

The information Hemric requested is public record. Under state law, public officials must provide such information to any person who requests it.

The school system’s response was “ridiculous”, Amanda Martin, general counsel for the N.C. Press Association, told the Record & Landmark. “Public agencies cannot shirk their obligation to comply with the public records law by sending them to outside organizations.”

The school system would have erred had it referred Hemric’s request to an objective, non-partisan organization. In our view, it is far more troubling that the request was referred to the chairman of a political group that is actively supporting one side of a disputed public-policy issue. It is a safe bet that school officials would never refer a public records request to a group opposing the bonds.

Rather than correcting the mistake made by his Public Information Director, Superintendent Terry Holliday sent the Record & Landmark an e-mail that read: “I believe our response to Mr. Hemric to be professional and right on target with regard to public information requests.”

The kindest thing that can be said about Holliday’s response is that he is ignorant of the state public records law. We will refrain from spelling out what we really think.

The Record & Landmark deserves credit for reporting the story in a front-page article. But the newspaper would have given the story even more coverage if the same set of facts had involved the county government rather than the Iredell-Statesville school system.