Natural Sciences Museum GMO Battle Continues

I am writing with an update since I wrote My Letter to NC Museum of Natural Sciences' Director. The director did not respond to my request for a meeting with her and Dr. Kroll, my primary correspondent. I stepped back and reflected on my role in the stalemate upon discovering that Dr. Kroll is retweeting some untrue and unflattering things about me, illustrating a new level of disrespect toward citizen involvement: Museum Biotech Day Round-up. Taking none of it personally, I reflect further on my role, pick up the phone and call Dr. Kroll to try and put a human face on this debate by requesting a meeting. No response. Finally Director Bennett contacts me and pretty much gives me the bird in this September 19, 2012 email:

Ms. Combs,

I understand you have requested a meeting with Dr. David Kroll regarding your concerns about the Museum's Biotechnology Day in July. 

You have made your concerns very clear and have expressed them multiple times in extended email exchanges with Dr. Kroll. He, and other staff, have devoted extraordinary amounts of time responding to you. I see no reason for a meeting. 

I appreciate your expressing concerns and they will be taken into consideration in the planning for Biotechnology Day next year. 

Sincerely,
Betsy Bennett 

So now I have a Museum employee in Dr. Kroll making fun of my efforts and the Director giving me the bird twice. The issue is beyond GMOs now, it is about respect for citizen involvement in government. I submit a public records request to Dr. Bennett on September 22 and am told the following on September 25:

Ms. Combs: 

I’m responding to your recent records request on behalf of Dr. Bennett.

We will gather the records requested and let you know as soon as they are available.  Your request is broad and requires polling all staff members, which will take considerable time, so you may wish to consider whether you want to narrow the scope of your request.

Any records we gather will need to be reviewed by legal counsel to avoid releasing any information that is prohibited from disclosure, such as certain personnel information.

The records likely are in electronic form, and I am in hopes will not require any charge.  I will advise you before incurring any charges greater than $25, as you requested.

When the records are ready, I’ll email you and we can figure out the best method for getting them to you.

Thank you,

Mark Johnson

Director of External Affairs

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

I am uncertain how a records request targeting internal and external Biotech Day correspondence from June 29, 2012 to the present and targeting correspondence between the Museum and Biotech Day contributors who are also donors to the New Wing of the Science Museum is a broad request. My records as a state government employee used to be reviewed by citizens, and being the good file keeper that I was, it didn’t take “considerable time” to make my records available. If I needed supplemental records from others, I sent an email asking for them, and being the good record keepers that my co-workers were, it was easy enough to get the information. What is this “polling of staff members” junk? Send an email requesting the information and give them a response date. This feels like stonewalling to me.

Frustrated, I turned to the Museum’s overseeing agency, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). I ask for the Ombudsman, who is the person who handles disputes between the agency and the public. Instead I get the Public Affairs officer. He is a good listener, takes in what I say and agrees with me about the Biotech Day mess, with the caveat that he is coming into this debate very late and has only spoken to me.

He asks what I want. I tell him a meeting with Director Bennett and David Kroll so that we can reopen communication and make this discussion more human. I would like him to be present because we need someone less entrenched to facilitate a meeting.

He asks what I want from a meeting. I respond that I want the Museum to stop holding Biotech Day because it is inconsistent with Natural Science. Given that they are invested and that is not a likely outcome, I tell him that my fallback is that the Museum ban any contributor who has violated federal or international law in the last 10 years. He says that sounds reasonable and he will see about arranging a meeting.

After reading my correspondence with the Museum and speaking with the players he informs me that the Museum will not have a meeting because there is nothing left to talk about. I ask how that can be given that he knows there is more to talk about and he agrees with my points, per our discussion. He stands by the Museum line, but I can tell he is wavering. I know that deference is given to government employees over the public, but in this case I am a reasonable citizen with a reasonable issue to raise so I shouldn’t be stonewalled. I tell him I am appalled that the Museum receives deference given that Dr. Kroll is Tweeting about and mocking a serious discussion raised by a citizen to the Museum. How can a public employee treat the public so poorly and mock citizens publicly? How can that be the end of the discussion?

Off we go to Dr. Kroll’s Tweets and reTweets, and I can tell that he finds some of them troubling. I ask to whom I should go next and he tells me the Director of DENR. He tells me to keep trying.

So I continue to try. 

Comments

[Lynn Wilhelm]

"I want the Museum to stop holding Biotech Day because it is inconsistent with Natural Science. Given that they are invested and that is not a likely outcome, I tell him that my fallback is that the Museum ban any contributor who has violated federal or international law in the last 10 years."

Laura, I'm really surprised that anyone called your desired outcome "reasonable". You want a major science museum to stop celebrating science in NC and think they should meet with you to discuss this. You have made your desires quite clear to them and they have already addressed them fully. There is no need for a meeting to hash this over again.

Back off, and admit you aren't going to get what you want here. If you really want input, consider getting involved with the museum in a helpful way. Spend some time with the folks there and perhaps you can influence what happens there. Getting rid of Biotech Day? No way... Helping decide who speaks there, possibly--along with lots of others with more knowledge about the science than you have.