Hmmm, seems to mimic what we experience here.
Right To Know - Freedom of Information Act requests
How Hard Is It?
Often, the trepidition that many feel in approaching their government in requesting information can get people to say "ta heck with this!". Most people just do not want the spotlight placed on them with thoughts of repercussions going through their heads - "what will happen to my kids if I ask for the salaries of the teachers"?
In some cases, as Doug has found out, it isn't easy (when you end up at the NH Supreme Court, I guess that qualifies in the "not so easy" category). At the Town level, I have nothing but good words for the cheerfulness and speed of fulfillment of my requests so far (often with emails or call backs to make sure that I received the info I asked for). At the School Board / SAU level, a little bit more formal, but I've been satisfied.
At the County level, however, I found out personally that it really depends on who is servicing the request, even at the within department.
Sorta like these folk have received. This from our friend Maggie at Thurber's Thoughts; this one - not so much:
When I first started FOIA Fridays, I blogged about a local citizen who was seeking information about red light cameras, aerial traffic enforcement and the convenience store licensing law. That was a month ago.
Yesterday, in a follow-up to that request, GraphicsGuy copied me on his email to Brian Schwartz, the city's public information officer. (personal contact information has been removed)
Mr. Schwartz:
On 07 April, I delivered 3 FOIA requests to your office:
(1) Records pertaining to the maintenance, certification and testing of red light cameras;
(2) Costs incurred for aerial traffic enforcement;
(3) Documents supporting Councilman Ludeman's claim as to pricing of security camera for convenient stores.
To date, I have only received an answer to item # 3, as outline below.
On 23 April at 9:30a.m., I called and left a message on your voice mail asking to be contacted with an update of the status of the 2 remaining requests. As of 01 May, you have not returned my call or otherwise provided me with the information I am legally attempting to obtain.
Please contact me by email at xxxxx@bex.net or by telephone at (419) xxx-xxxx with information regarding my FOIA requests.
Thank you.
As you can see, he's not getting the public records he requested and now he's having trouble getting a response to his phone calls.
But sometimes, things go well:
On a related note, last week I emailed the Lucas County Auditor's office to request a listing of expenditures from a specific fund. I had a response to my email within 2 hours offering to either fax the data or leave it at the front desk for pick up the next day.
When they followed up the next morning, as promised, to let me know the print outs were ready, they inquired as to whether or not my fax machine could handle legal-sized paper. As it doesn't do that very well, the employee offered to drop off the data to the radio station, as she was going to be very close to the building during her lunch hour. This, she said, would save me a trip into government center and having to pay for parking in the garage. While that was more than I expected and I didn't want to inconvenience her, I truly appreciated her approach in trying to make it easy for me to get the information I was seeking.So, remember, everyone else puts on their pants pretty much the same way we do - one or two legs at a time. Even when going after a former governor of Illinois: (our former guest on MTNP, Mike Van Winkle at A Chicago Blog):
Following up on my post earlier this week questioning why Jim Thompson cares so much about the Illinois Sports Facility Authority purchasing Wrigley Field, I’ve decided to see if the former governor is getting any expenses reimbursed by the ISFA, for which he serves as chairman.
So this week’s Friday FOIA is a request for Thompson’s expense report and credit card receipts. It is very likely that he doesn’t have any and that the he serves as ISFA Chairman for free. But you never know until you ask.
Here’s the letter if you’re interested.
Heh!
