We aren't sure if they were keeping it a secret or what, but yesterday we learned that Howard
Stohlman, who most of us residents thought was just a techy at the County, is a Department head.
In fact, he is officially the CIO (Chief Information Officer) and makes a decent living, although we don't know exactly what it is yet.
When we saw Agenda Item 20 on the Board of Supervisors list yesterday, we called and left a message that he didn't return; and then we emailed him a list of questions.
These are the questions we asked the CIO at 9:15 AM on August 26, 2013:
1. Have you ever been requested to do work on any documents or video at your home or at the county that required changes to those documents or videos?
2. Are you the person responsible for security of the video tapes of the Board of Supervisor meetings, etc.? If not you, then who is, please?
3. Who has the authority to request you to make these changes, board members, clerks, CAO?
4. Were you and MItchell the ones who bought the computer program for document storage and were you the one who nixed using it without anyone in the public finding out? Why wasn't a correction allowed by the company?
5. Are you totally in charge of the computerized storage of all documents at the county? If not, then who is responsible if something should turn up changed or missing?
In response to this email, on August 27, 2013 at 12:45 PM we received this strange message:
Item 20 on today's agenda is a Board discussion about their response to the Grand Jury. All questions relevant to their response should be addressed directly to them.
As to questions 1-5, I unfortunately cannot answer your questions. I have no legal duty to respond directly to public for requests to provide general information.
Otherwise, I along with other county staff, would be overwhelmed with activity for private enterprise to the detriment of the public.
Should you want a particular public record that might shed light on your concerns, please specify the document (s) so that I am better able to assist you.
Howard
HUH? Now, this is definitely the strangest reply for information we have ever received from a department head. Our response to him was:
and how many people did it take to help you write that, Howard. Let's see, the CAO and County counsel??? What are you afraid of, Howard? If you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.
Since that----nothing from the CIO What do you think??? In light of the Board of Supervisors treating the Grand Jury investigation so lightly and doing absolutely nothing to secure our county videos and documents in the future, we believe perhaps yet another complaint to the Calaveras County Grand Jury would be appropriate, don't you?
4 comments:
Sounds more like a case for the Attorney General, to me.
Sounds like they are trying to sweep this under a $400,000 rug and protect a dept head. Shane on you Callaway for misleading the public
She's been in office way too long, like Tryon. She needs to go!!
/What is interesting is that Stohlman doesn't even attempt to deny anything you asked. How much he makes should be public information, Just ask a Supervisor.
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