[nfbmi-talk] FOIA -: he's got it right

[marthaamoore at yahoo.com]

Very good article.






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From: NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List
Sent: ‎Wednesday‎, ‎April‎ ‎22‎, ‎2015 ‎8‎:‎01‎ ‎PM
To: NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List





 

Scott: FOIA means freedom from overcharging

Lonnie Scott 12:06 a.m. EDT April 17, 2015

2014
246950604-TDNBrd_11-06-2014_D_1_B002~~2014~11~05~IMG_Governor_Michigan_.jpg

 

The Freedom of Information Act allows Michiganians to scrutinize politicians
such as Gov. Rick Snyder. Charging exorbitant fees for public documents
defeats

the purpose of the law, Scott writes.(Photo: David Coates / AP)

124 CONNECT

 23 TWEET

LINKEDIN

13 COMMENTEMAILMORE

 

This week marks the 150th anniversary of the assassination of President
Abraham Lincoln. In arguably Lincoln's most memorable speech, the Gettysburg
Address,

he uttered the words, "that government of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the earth."

 

Government is designed to protect our communities, educate our children, and
keep our air and water clean.

 

But when citizens are unable to keep tabs on how those in power are using
government, this tool quickly begins to slip from the grasp of the
citizenry.

 

Access to public records is one of the best ways citizens, reporters and
watchdog organizations can ensure that our government is being used to
benefit

all of us - not just the wealthy and well-connected.

 

Unfortunately in Michigan, our public records laws, known as the Freedom of
Information Act or FOIA, are woefully broken and need to be fixed.

 

Fees for FOIA requests from state departments vary wildly. Some departments
charge little or nothing to produce information, while others charge
exorbitant

fees in the tens of thousands of dollars.

 

Take for example our recent FOIA request to state departments asking for
emails from one of Gov. Rick Snyder's out-of-state education advisors. Both
the

Education Achievement Authority and Michigan Department of Education
provided us with documents free of charge, but the Department of Treasury
wanted to

charge - wait for it - over $52,000 dollars.

 

To put that in perspective, the average salary in Michigan is $45,410.

 

If we truly want a government that is of the people and by the people,
public records should be available at little or no charge. Our tax dollars
pay for

the servers where this information is stored and for the salaries of the
people who gather and produce the information we request. We're already
paying

for this information. We shouldn't need to fork over five-figure fees just
to look at what rightly belongs to all of us.

 

Without reasonable access to public records, we would have never known about
the numerous problems with the state's Aramark contract. The cancellation of

the state's $98,000 fine and the fact that Aramark employees served inmates
food that had been eaten by rodents and taken out of the trash would have
never

come to light had it not been for FOIA. Our tax dollars pay for that
contract, so we have the right to know what's going on with that - and any
other government

function.

 

Whether it's FOIA fee discrepancies across departments, or the fact that our
state lawmakers and governor are exempt from public records requests,
Michigan

has a lot of work to do to fix our FOIA system.

 

We have freedom in this state and country because we can hold those in power
accountable for their actions and decisions. It becomes much more difficult

to do that when our freedom to access public records is buried under onerous
fees and departmental discrepancies.

 

Over the years, bills have been introduced to make the FOIA process more
complete and uniform across the state, but more needs to be done. It's time
lawmakers

- especially Gov. Snyder - owned up to their promises of transparency. No
more games and exorbitant fees, no more stalling and hiding behind loopholes

in the law. It's past time for Michigan to fix our broken FOIA system. It's
up to us to make sure lawmakers do so.

 

Lonnie Scott

is executive director of Progress Michigan, a progressive communications hub
and watchdog organization.

124 CONNECT

 

Source:

 

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2015/04/17/scott-foia-freedom-overc
harging/25892261/

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