After last week's story about how Commissioner of Public Safety Ron Kim is declining to share a police manual with Mayor Scott Johnson, we here at The Saratogian decided that we'd like a copy of both the manual and the complete contract with the police department rules and regulations manual (we already have copies of the DPW and City Hall contracts).

Earlier in the week, Managing Editor Barbara Lombardo requested the police manual, and earlier today, I put in a request, under Freedom of Information Laws, for the contract.

It bears noticing, however, that even with the city's Democrats gearing up for a campaign to be based -- at least in part -- on open government, Ron Kim and his staff have declined informal requests for these documents.

In the past, Kim has been very willing to share many different types of documents with the press, this is a rare exception. The reason stated to me for putting us through the FOIL process was that the Mayor's department is handling negotiations, and that Public Safety didn't want to interfere, but this position would seem to be at odds with the Public Safety departmental policy of keeping other documents from the Mayor's department.

So, I will keep you posted on our efforts to secure these documents from City Hall.