[nfbmi-talk] Secret Snyder Administration is Alive & Well

[Joe Sontag]

Wonder if BS For Blind Persons cares to recalculate any of their FOIA garbage estimates after July 1?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Terry D. Eagle via nfbmi-talk" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
To: "'NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List'" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2015 8:27
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] Secret Snyder Administration is Alive & Well


: So much for Snyder Administration transparency.  Many more of these FOIA
: lawsuits are necessary to bring out the sunshine and disinfect our
: government from corruption!
: 
: State agency attempts to charge $1,550 for copying spreadsheet data that
: already exists onto a flash drive
: 
: 
: 
: For Immediate Release
: 
: Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015
: 
: Contact:
: 
: Ted O'Neil
: 
: Media Relations Manager
: 
: 989-698-1914
: 
: 
: 
: MIDLAND - The Mackinac Center for Public Policy today filed a Freedom of
: Information Act
: 
: lawsuit
: 
: in Midland County Circuit Court against the Michigan Liquor Control
: Commission over illegal fees the government agency attempted to charge the
: Mackinac
: 
: Center for copying spreadsheet data onto a flash drive.
: 
: 
: 
: "This is information that an MLCC employee had already told us existed
: electronically," said Derk Wilcox, senior attorney for the Mackinac Center
: Legal
: 
: Foundation. "It would be like trying to charge for making photocopies when
: the photocopies already exist."
: 
: 
: 
: On Nov. 7, 2014, Fiscal Policy Director Michael LaFaive visited the MLCC
: offices to do research on the issue of "
: 
: post and hold
: 
: " rules for alcohol prices. He was told that 2.5 months' worth of data he
: was seeking existed on a spreadsheet and that he could have that data if he
: could
: 
: provide a USB flash drive.
: 
: 
: 
: "I asked if I could mail them a flash drive and obtain the information and
: we agreed I would submit an official
: 
: FOIA request,
: 
: " LaFaive said. "I even offered to return in person with a flash drive to
: obtain the information."
: 
: 
: 
: LaFaive was eventually
: 
: told
: 
: by the MLCC's FOIA coordinator that his request would require a cost
: estimate and a deposit before it could be processed. LaFaive
: 
: responded
: 
: via email, asking "MLCC must do an estimate to ascertain the cost of
: sticking a thumb drive in your computer?" LaFaive also
: 
: reiterated
: 
: that the only data he was seeking was that which he'd already been told
: existed electronically.
: 
: 
: 
: The MLCC responded, stating LaFaive's request had been
: 
: granted,
: 
: and that the estimated cost of processing the request would be $1,550.22. A
: 50 percent deposit was required before the MLCC would proceed. The Mackinac
: 
: Center chose not to pay. An attached
: 
: invoice
: 
: stated the costs included $50.22 for 1.5 hours of an employee's time (an
: hourly rate of $33.48) for "locating and duplicating" the requested data,
: and $1,500
: 
: for copying 6,000 pages at 25 cents per page.
: 
: 
: 
: "First off, FOIA only allows a public body to charge no more than the hourly
: wage of its lowest paid employee capable of the task," Wilcox said. "A
: full-time
: 
: employee with an hourly wage of $33.48 would have an annual salary of
: $69,638.40. It defies belief that the lowest paid employee at the Liquor
: Control
: 
: Commission capable of this task makes nearly $70,000 a year."
: 
: 
: 
: Wilcox also said FOIA only allows government bodies to charge the actual
: incremental cost of duplication or publication.
: 
: 
: 
: "They can't charge hypothetical or comparable costs for electronic documents
: that are similar to what they could charge for physical photocopying," he
: said.
: 
: "They can only charge for the actual incremental cost, which for copying a
: spreadsheet onto a flash drive is negligible or zero."
: 
: 
: 
: Wilcox noted that even if the MLCC could charge a fee equivalent to a
: hypothetical paper photocopy, 25 cents per page is excessive.
: 
: 
: 
: "Private businesses, that are presumably aiming to make a profit, only
: charge 10 cents a page at most."
: 
: 
: 
: The Mackinac Center is asking that the court order the MLCC to pay
: attorneys' fees and $500 in damages.
: 
: 
: 
: "When government entities adopt these kinds of policies that are far in
: excess of the law, it becomes obvious they are designed to put up roadblocks
: to
: 
: the public's access to information," Wilcox said. "They constitute a
: constructive denial of a FOIA request and are illegal."
: 
: 
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