michigan foia preview by edward vielmetti

7/29/2019 Michigan FOIA Preview by Edward Vielmetti

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TheNo-Nonsense

Guide totheMichigan

Freedom ofInformation

Act (FOIA)


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Edward Vielmetti


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The No-NonsenseGuide to theMichigan Freedom

of Information Act(FOIA)

Edward Vielmetti

2013 Edward Vielmetti


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Contents

Chapter 1: A sample FOIA request . . 1

Be nice! Seriously. Be overly nice. . 1Who can request records . . . . . . 2Forms and formats . . . . . . . . . 3Who to send your request to . . . . 4Which organizations are subject to

the Michigan FOIA laws . . . 5Outsourcing and public-private part-nerships . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Get it in writing . . . . . . . . . . . 7Ask for records, not information or

data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The risk of your request being filedas spam . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Formatting your request . . . . . . 9Limiting your costs . . . . . . . . . 10


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CONTENTS

FOIA sample letter . . . . . . . . . 11More sample letters from MuckRock 13Sample letters at a2docs . . . . . . . 14


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Chapter 1: A

sample FOIArequest

The best way to write a better FOIA request isto see some examples of the system in action.Here are some basic principles to follow, witha sample letter that illustrates the process.

Be nice! Seriously. Beoverly nice.

Get straight to the point in your request forrecords, and do not fill your request letter withpolemics, anger, invective, or other extraneousrhetoric. Keep the request letter as simple aspossible, to ensure that it is handled as a


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Chapter 1: A sample FOIA request 2

matter of routine and so that the clerk is notdistracted by a stray argument.

Be pleasant and direct, especially in person.The staff of a public body has a lot of discre-tion in how quickly to answer your request,

and you can avoid needless delays by notmaking yourself unwelcome.

Who can request records

Any person can request records via the Michi-gan FOIA laws, except those who are incarcer-ated. [MCL 15.232(c)] This includes corporatepersons, and persons who are not based in

Michigan.If you are requesting records from a policeagency, its possible that you will be asked toprovide positive identification before receiv-ing records, so that they can check to see that

you are not an incarcerated individual.The various states have differing rules on whocan access public records. The most restric-tive include Virginia, where you must be a


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citizen of the state to access records. The U.S.Supreme Court is hearing a case, McBurney v.Young, in 2013 which will decide if their out-of-state rules are acceptable.

Forms and formats

Michigan FOIA laws do not specify a partic-ular format that a request must be provided

in. As long as a request for records is providedin writing, it should be handled by the gov-ernment body as a FOIA request and passedalong to the individual who coordinates FOIAresponses. In practice, it is always best to con-tact the body that you are requesting recordsfrom and identify who the request should beaddressed to.

Many public bodies will provide a pre-printedform on which a FOIA request can be filed. Ifsuch a form is provided, you should get a copyof it to ensure that any matter of fact detailslike phone numbers and addresses are copiedcorrectly into your request.


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Youre better off writing your own letter thanusing a pre-printed form. As noted in chapter3, a carefully written request letter will mini-mize the costs of a request, and most providedforms do not include a key piece of language

that can save you time, trouble, and money.Never sign a preprinted form that says I agreeto pay all fees associated with this request.

Who to send your

request to

You may find that the city clerk, city attor-neys office, communications office, or town-ship supervisor is ultimately in charge of FOIArequests. If there is any question, contact theoffice of the highest ranking official and askto whom a FOIA request should be addressed.The law refers to a FOIA coordinator, andif you send your request through the mails to

that person, it should get through even if youdont know their name.

Its also likely that larger organizations haveonline FOIA information, and that may help


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as far as identifying the best point of contact.Examine or search the municipal web sitewith the search string FOIA or Freedomof Information to locate on-site information.You are looking for online forms, policies,

costs associated with your request, and otherinformation about how to contact the publicbody.

Which organizations are

subject to the Michigan

FOIA laws

Michigan cities, townships, public libraries,

state agencies, regional authorities, and othersimilar forms of government are subject to theMichigan Freedom of Information Act. Thelaw [MCL 15.232(d)] specifically exempts theoffice of the governor and the judiciary, and

an Attorney Generals ruling exempts legisla-tors.

Non-profit organizations are not generally sub-ject to Freedom of Information Act requests.


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They are, however, required to submit a Form990 to the Internal Revenue Service, and maybe able to provide that financial informationupon request.

There is a small gray area in the Michigan

law about non-profits that are subject to FOIArequests. If a non-profit gets the majority of itssupport from a public body, it may be subjectto FOIA requirements. In practice, organiza-tions that are not public bodies fight these

FOIA requests, and you may need to go tocourt to win the records you want.

Outsourcing and

public-privatepartnerships

If a public body has contracted out work to aprivate organization, they may only posess afraction of the records which would normallybe held by that public body if it was doing thework itself. This so-called public private part-nership often results in the public body not


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providing as much information in response toa public records request as expected.

Get it in writing

FOIA requests in Michigan must be madein writing. A verbal request for records isnot considered a FOIA request, and the lawsthat ensure a timely response do not apply

to verbal requests. If you really want to findsomething out through this process, you mustwrite down your question.

Written requests include paper letters, facsim-ile transmissions, and electronic mail. Note

that many organizations start their clock forhaving received an electronic request to thenext business day. If time is of the essence,a hand-delivered paper request handed to theofficial in charge with a conversation aboutthe urgency of the request may be your fastestapproach.


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Ask for records, notinformation or data

Michigan public bodies are not obliged to cre-

ate new records in response to a FOIA request,and you should not expect that broad requestsfor information will be answered the way thatyou expect. Instead, seek out existing records(paper or electronic) that will help you de-termine the information you want. You maydiscover in the course of getting an answerto your first query that a second query isnecessary; if so, repeat the process until youare satisfied.

This is one of many examples where a friendlyrelationship with individuals inside a publicbody can help your search for records. You arenot entitled to a report if such a report does notyet exist; yet, if you get someone to run thatreport for you and tell you what its called, you

can subsequently request it.


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The risk of your requestbeing filed as spam

Make in plainly clear in your request letter

that you are making a request under the act.You may get faster response via electronicmail if your Subject line also includes the wordFOIA. Beware that some agencies with overlyaggressive spam filtering on email may divertyour message into their spam mailbox; it isalways appropriate to follow up an email witha subsequent did you get my message phonecall if a timely answer is required.

Formatting your request

If you are asking for more than one thing,number your requests.

If you expect that some of the records that you

request will be redacted, e.g. for personal pri-vacy reasons, specify that the agency shouldseparate out the parts of the request that it can


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fulfill from those that it wont to ensure thatyou get as much information as you can.

Limiting your costs

To save duplication costs, ask for your recordsin electronic format. This not only saves paperbut can dramatically reduce the cost of fulfill-ing the request.

Set a maximum amount that you are willing topay for your request, and do not agree to havethe agency do the work for any more than thatmaximum unless you give a specific go-ahead.There may be something that you asked for

that you thought should be easy to providethat turns out to be expensive, and you wantto leave room for negotiation.

Always ask for a waiver of fees in the casewhere anything you do will be shared with

the public. Michigan FOIA law provides fordiscretion by the public body whether or notto assess a fee, and many organizations pro-vide responses for free when the time spent


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compiling a response is small enough to beconsidered routine, e.g. less than an hour ofa clerks time. (See more on fees in Chapter 3.)

FOIA sample letter1 To: City Clerk, City of Arbopolis

2 From: John Quackles, Arbopolis Newsha\

3 wks

4 Subject: FOIA request: Controlled bur\

5 n permits

6 Date: 1 December 2012

This is a request under the Michigan Freedom

of Information Act.Please provide the following records:

1. A copy of each of the controlled burnpermits issued by the City of Arbopolis

during calendar year 2012.2. A copy of the city policies and proce-

dures used to evaluate whether a con-trolled burn permit should be issued.


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3. For each of the controlled burn per-mits denied during calendar year 2012,a copy of the correspondence betweenthe City and the applicant related to thispermit denial.

Please provide all records in electronic format,to the extent that this is possible.

Please treat each of the above items as sep-arate requests, and if one of them cannot be

fulfilled for any reason, please continue withthe others.

If any of the records are exempt from disclo-sure, please separate out the exempt from thenon-exempt portions of those records.

I am willing to pay up to $10.00 to satisfy thisrequest. If the costs for fulfilling the requestare expected to exceed $10.00, please providean itemized summary of expected costs beforeproceeding with the request. Please consider

waiving these fees, as the results of this querywill contribute to the public interest.

If there are any questions regarding this re-quest, please contact me at 734-555-1212 or at


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[email protected].

You may send electronic records to my emailaddress, [email protected]. I will pickup any paper records in person.

Your prompt cooperation in fulfilling this re-quest is appreciated!

thanks

1 John Quackles

2 Arborpolis Newshawks3 100 S. Puddles St.

4 Arborpolis, MI 48100

More sample letters

from MuckRock

If you are looking for a lot of sample FOIAletters to browse through, go no farther than

MuckRocks collection.https://www.muckrock.com/foi/list/

MuckRock specializes in helping automate theFOIA submission and resubmission process,


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which is especially useful for Federal agenciesthat can be very slow at responding to re-quests. As of May 2013, they support MichiganFOIA requests to a small set of cities, and theircollection of sample letters is a great set to sort

through.

Sample letters at a2docs

A sample of FOIA related letters and docu-ments can also be found on the Ann ArborArea Government Document Repository.

http://a2docs.org

michigan foia preview by edward vielmetti

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