FOIA surge shows public’s interest in transparency

Downers Grove, IL — Though they didn’t invoke the phrase “unfunded mandate,” Downers Grove officials are worried about how much implementing a revised law is costing.

The Illinois Freedom of Information Act was enhanced last year by the General Assembly and became effective in January. Public officials now have five days to respond to FOIA requests, as opposed to seven. The first 50 pages requested must be provided for free, and the price of reproducing any additional black-and-white, standard-size paper is capped at 15 cents per page.

Downers Grove has experienced a substantial increase in FOIA requests this year. In March 2009, the village received 37 such requests. In March this year, there were 159 requests.

The village has spent more than $38,000 so far this year responding to FOIA requests. Given that we’re not even halfway through 2010, this total could become excessive.

More here.

A $27,000 Price Tag to Know How Much Road Fight has Cost Taxpayers

The Taxpayer Association of Kane County, Utah, was astounded when it received the estimated cost of its request for records regarding how much the county has spent battling the federal Bureau of Land Management regarding ownership of public roads in southern Utah -- $27,000 and a few years.

The group does not take a position in the litigation over the removal of 31 BLM road closure signs on hundreds of public roads in 2003, but it does want to know how much the fight has cost the county. The taxpayer group requested information regarding how much money has been spent from the general fund; how much time county employees have spent on road projects; how much has been spent on private contractors; all attorneys fees; any costs for vehicles or equipment; per diem costs for associated travel; and any surveys and maps created.

The Kane County attorney maintains the scope of the request is too broad and vague to merit a reasonable response in terms of cost and time, estimating it would take two paid researchers at least 1,500 hours to gather the information requested.

For more information, click here.

Alaska's "Going Rouge" in Responding to Palin Administration Records Requests

Alaska Governor Sean Parnell wants even more time to respond to records requests pertaining to Palin administration e-mails and other information, even though some requests have been pending for more than a year.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, the excuses range from too many requests, too complicated requests, and too voluminous requests to requests that require an attorney to review the documents individually for privacy and executive privilege issues.

For more on the delayed records response from the Alaska state government, click here.

Following the Money Trail... At Great Expense

Missouri attorney Noah Wood is trying to collect a debt owed to his firm by a former Libyan-backed company in the U.S., and he'd like to get documents from the Treasury Department showing where perhaps millions of dollars of once-frozen assets are now.

But the Treasury Department says Wood's request will cost him $522,886 to comply with the four-year old FOIA request, even though Wood says a former Treasury Department official has "basically told them the exact file cabinet it was in." 

Wood is suing the federal government to comply with the FOIA request and to reduce the bill.  

Get more information here. 

A FOIA Request Yields a Cost Demand Figure with Two Commas in it!

Nearly $7 million dollars, with more than $3 million as a down payment.  That's the amount the Michigan Department of State Police is demanding in response to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's FOIA request for documents regarding the state's handling of federal security grant money from 2002 to the present.  

The Department of State Police says the records request for all spending reports regarding federal homeland security grants from 2002 to the present amounts to more than 2 million pages.  

Get more here. 

Missouri Attorney Sues City Over Open Records Request

Columbia attorney Stephen Wyse has sued the city of Columbia and the Columbia Police Department's custodian of records over an open records request. 

Wyse had requested surveillance video from the Columbia Police Department showing the police lobby and holding area to determine whether the police had inappropriately denied him access to an arrested woman who asked for a lawyer.  

In response to his Sunshine Law request for the video, the police department's custodian of records estimated the cost to be $2,739.73 and said it would take three weeks to organize more than 80 hours of digital footage. 

Wyse responded, saying the city violated the Sunshine Law by inappropriately calculating the cost and for not responding to the request timely.  He received a new estimate for $114.31, covering the cost of burning the footage to DVDs.  After paying the $114.31, Wyse again was told that his request would be honored in three weeks and after he paid the original cost estimate of $2,739.73.  

More here. 

Mass. tells public school system it can't charge $14K for directory data

Cambridge Public Schools argued that it would cost $14,426.88 to compile directory information on its students. This did not even include reproduction costs for the copies of documents. Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records has given the district 10 days to respond with a reasonable charge.

The state’s public records division ordered Cambridge Public Schools to nix its $14,000 charge for public information, saying the school district should be charging a reasonable rate for a complete list of students.

The Chronicle originally made the request in 2007 using the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act to gain access to a list of Cambridge Public School students that would be used for informational purposes, not for publication.

“You are hereby ordered to provide [the Chronicle] with a revised written, good faith estimate which reflects the actual costs of providing the names of the students whose parents have consented to release of ‘directory information,” Supervisor of Public Records Alan Cote wrote in a Feb. 12 letter.

More here.

FEMA: Those Records Will Cost Ya...

From the Times-Picayune comes the latest PR victory from the folks who brought you the Hurrican Katrina cleanup...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is charging a newspaper $209,990 for records documenting the agency's response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a price deemed "absurd" by one lawmaker.

The Advocate of Baton Rouge must pay that amount before FEMA will turn over copies of more than 2 million pages of documents relating to inspection and maintenance of government-issued trailers and mobile homes, the newspaper reported Tuesday.

FEMA also gave the newspaper 10 days to pay or said it would consider the request withdrawn.

Ah, yes...but the first 100 pages are free!

More here.