ST. ALBANS, Vt. -
Governor Peter Shumlin and State Senator Randy Brock have debated a number of times over the past few weeks.
But the most recent has one of the candidates scratching his head.
"I was totally puzzled by his question. I had no idea what he was getting at, what he trying to get at," said Shumlin.
Brock asked Shumlin why he isn't letting the public know about how much taxpayer money is being spent on settlement claims ranging from discrimination to wrongful termination.
"He refused [Wednesday] when I asked him, would he comply, and then he told me to go debate with his lawyer. I thought that was an unusual response for a governor," said Brock.
Looking for answers Brock submitted a public record's request to five state agencies, including Shumlin's office.
In regards to those settlements, Brock wants to see all checks, financial reports, emails and other documents related to the cases from last year.
The state has ten business days to respond.
That means Brock may not get an answer until November eighth, which happens to be two days after the election.
Brock doesn't think it should take that long.
"A list of that should certainly be at somebody's fingertips," said Brock.
Even though he's puzzled, Governor Shumlin says he has no problem providing the information.
"Nothing to hide in terms of all of the public records request that we get and we comply with them," said Shumlin.
We asked Senator Brock why he's just coming out with this now, so close to the election.
He says, someone recently came to him with information about a case and he wants to see if it's true.
We also requested to see how many cases and how much was spent on those settlements, but we were told it would take several days to gather all that information.
