I honestly don't understand why it is even legal for government agencies to spend taxpayer money on jobs like public relations and trying to keep things out of the public or distort how things are perceived by the public.<p>I pay taxes so those people can do the job they are tasked to do. I don't pay taxes so those people can spend time trying to finesse how the job they are doing is viewed by the public or pay someone else to do the same with my tax dollars.<p>It would be nice if when memos like these crossed someones desk that they were viewed with the same suspicion as bringing up age or gender issues in hiring processes. Like gender issues and age, trying to keep public policy from being publicly debated is not only orthogonal to their job, it is damaging to the public interest.<p>Seriously, can we pass some laws prohibiting any behavior where officials trying to keep things from being debated publicly because the public will not approve. To allow them to continue with their self-serving hidden policies is antithetical to the notion of a democracy or republic.