Freedom of Information Act

yakley

We're a public employer and ready to draft a policy for handling a request for sensitive information. Does anyone have a policy in place that I can share?

Any suggestions on any points that I should be sure to include? such as
one request at a time; purpose of request; time to research and provide information; cost of any copy made;

Thanks.

Kay

AnneHa

We are a public employer in Ohio and are bound by the Ohio Sunshine Laws, not the FOIA. The Attorney General posts an update on the state website annually for state agencies to review. These laws include the areas you are questioning. For example, ‘purpose of request’. We are NOT allowed to ask the purpose even if we suspect the information will be used for commercial reasons. Some personnel documents are available to the public and some are not. This law is very difficult to understand in some cases and we always refer to our statutory counsel before we make any kind of decision on release of information.
TN may have something similar in place. This quote from the intro part of OH law should motivate you to run your policy by counsel before implementing.
“The Ohio Public Records Act imposes two primary obligations upon public
offices: 1) provide prompt inspection of public records and 2) provide copies of
public records within a reasonable period of time. These obligations, in turn,
provide the public with two primary rights: 1) the right to prompt inspection of
public records and 2) the right to copies within a reasonable period of time.
However, these obligations and rights only apply to “public records.” Further,
they only apply to “public offices.” Therefore, in order to fully understand the
public’s rights under the Public Records Act, it is important to understand what is
a “public record” and a “public office” for purposes of the Act.”

Clear as mud.

Of course, if you are a federal agency go here: [url]http://www.usdoj.gov/04foia/index.html[/url]



Anne in Ohio

Shadowfax

In Mi all of the questions you pose are covered by statutory duties under the act (state act). The one thing you really must have is a policy statement designating someone to receive and process the requests. Letting just anyone or everone respondis a recipe for disaster. Beyond that, train the responsible person how to follow the statute. In Mi it is easy to slp up inadvertantly and create unnecessary problems and ultimately expense.