Statement (5/22/14) by mayor's press secretary and deputy chief of staff Kevin Harris

 

In response to the publication of this (5/22/14) story in Baltimore Brew – “Mayor’s press office circles the wagons in defense of Sharon Pinder” – we received this statement from Kevin Harris.

Before we went to press with the story, The Brew had sent Harris several emailed queries and received no response. This statement was received after the story was published:

“My correspondence to Ms. Pinder, which also included Mark Reutter of The Brew, was intended to make Ms. Pinder aware that it was not her responsibility to gather documents pertaining to an MPIA request, but rather the law department would handle gathering responsive records. Ms. Pinder does not regularly handle MPIA requests, so when I saw she had been approached directly by a member of the media I informed her that the proper staff to make sure we are in compliance with all requests is the law department. At no time was there ever an attempt to exclude information from the public or the media, as is evidenced by the fact Mr. Reutter was left on the e-mail chain. Furthermore, the Mayor’s office is only notified when records are released. We do not determine which records are sent back to the public or the media. ”