Governor Pawlenty recommends broadband stimulus applications

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) has decided that the communication issued by a state agency to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) relative to the administration's funding priorities for federal broadband stimulus projects in Minnesota is not considered a "public document." According to a staff attorney in the Minnesota Department of Commerce, the sequestering of the state's recommendation document to the NTIA, and of the review process that generated the submittal to the federal agency, was directed by the Minnesota Department of Administration. The Department, headed by Commissioner Sheila Reger, a Pawlenty appointee, acts as a central services arm of government. Washington DC-based broadband and telecom attorney Jeneba Jalloh Ghatt of the Ghatt Law Group said, "At the outset, the state of Minnesota has to realize that others have elected to release their rankings. Given that it was never a secret and was quite "public" that NTIA sought the rankings from all of the states in the first place, it is unclear why the ultimate rankings would be considered "non public". It is also unclear whether Minnesota can keep the letter hidden for long."