States' Rumplestiltskin FOIA Avoidance Protocol

What a joke!

I do not know about the rest of the States, but I will surely tell you about Michigan.

See, in Michigan, when you FOIA, even if you follow procedure and state it is a public issue, including demonstrating indigency, the state will hit you with its basic avoidance format.

It has been calculated that the cost of researching and compiling the information, including printing and manpower hours, will be some ridiculous amount.  As a show of good faith, please send a partial payment in the amount of your first born child and a body part.

I guess it just goes to show you, every state has its own excuse not to honor FOIA.

Besides, child welfare records are not subject to FOIA!

FOIA abuse v. department inefficiency

Read the last two paragraphs in this story on Freedom of Information Act "abuse":

Yet another financial problem rests with Freedom of Information Request abuse. DuPage Forest Preserve District Commissioner Carl Schultz said one person had recently cost the district $60,000 for FOIA requests; much of the information is already available, Schultz said.

The problem is stated as being one of abuse. What the commissioner is implying is that it's the requester who is at fault for the high cost of FOIA. However, it's clear this isn't the case.

When one sends FOIA requests for information that is available online, the FOIA response will not fulfill the request and state the availabity of information as a reason; the nice agencies/departments give you URLs. If the FOIA fulfillment system in the Commissioner's district is inefficiently duplicating copies that already exist, that is that commissioner's responsibility to fix the problem.

A system for answering FOIAs is flawed if the system doesn't:

*post information online,

*make it searchable and easy to use.

The second part can be easier said than done, but if information is "available" and the consumer can't get to it, it may as well not be. (DuPage makes real efforts to make information available and usable to its citizens online.)

Setting up and maintaining such a system for responding to public records requests is probably expensive and complicated, but that's certainly no fault of the public. Citizens have a right to information, and local governments have a duty to make this information available to them--it's in the job description.