The Chronicle-Tribune filed a formal complaint against the City of Marion with the Indiana Public Access Counselor (PAC) of Indiana Tuesday.
The complaint argues that the City of Marion wrongfully denied a public records request by the Chronicle-Tribune.
The Chronicle-Tribune submitted a public records request to the city on June 28 requesting any written communication from the city to city employees regarding how city employees should interact with and respond to the media. The paper made this request in an attempt to better understand the city’s policies regarding the media.
Whitney Gilbert works for the city as city attorney Michael Hotz’s administrative assistant. She told the Chronicle-Tribune on Friday, June 28 that the city needed two weeks to “research and determine the resources necessary to fulfill” the request and that the city would contact the paper on or before Friday, July 12 with further information about the request.
The Chronicle-Tribune received that further information on Monday, July 15. Gilbert said, “The one-page document regarding media communications will cost .10” and gave the paper some time frames during which the paper could stop by the office to pick up the document in question.
When the Chronicle-Tribune arrived at city hall to pick it up, however, a security guard relayed a message from Gilbert that she did not have the document with her at that moment, but that Hotz would email it to the paper and that Gilbert would follow up later.
Shortly after that, Gilbert sent another email saying, “Please disregard my email from this morning. I misunderstood and misspoke in when I said there was a document available for you at this time. Corporate Counsel should be providing a determination shortly regarding your request.”
“I see. It surprises me that such a simple and reasonable request is running into so many roadblocks. Now I’m especially curious about what this document(s) may contain,” Chronicle-Tribune Managing Editor Morgan Keller said in her reply to Gilbert. “What timeline can I expect Mr. Hotz to follow in providing that determination? It has already been more than two weeks to even get a determination about if you’ll comply with my request.”
The next morning, Tuesday, July 16, the Chronicle-Tribune received a denial of the request from Hotz, “due to its lack of specificity. The sheer volume of emails generated since the mayor took office makes it unfeasible to conduct a reasonable search.”
“In addition, to the extent that documents responsive to your request were to exist, they would be excluded from disclosure pursuant to Ind. Code 5-14-3-4,” Hotz’s denial continued.
“Well, if they found a document, then the search wasn’t unreasonable,” PAC Luke Britt told the Chronicle-Tribune over the phone when giving an informal ruling on the matter. “Usually, when something’s not specific enough, it’s not going to yield anything because they don’t even search because it’s too big of a parameter. …They shouldn’t give you the runaround. They should have given you that document on the spot.”
The Chronicle-Tribune asked Britt if the portion of the PAC handbook that says, “A denial must include a statement of the specific statutory reason for nondisclosure of the information” means that Hotz should have specified which portion of Ind. Code 5-14-3-4 applied to the denial.
“Yeah, you shouldn’t have to guess which of the 27 subsections may or may not apply to your request,” Britt said.
Britt concluded his informal opinion by telling the Chronicle-Tribune that the matter does warrant a formal complaint and that he would keep an eye out for it.
According to the formal complaint guide from the PAC website, once a complaint is filed and accepted, the Office of the Public Access Counselor notifies the alleged offending agency. A notice of formal complaint letter and a copy of the complaint are sent to the agency, which has approximately 20 business days to respond. Typically, an opinion will be issued within 40 to 45 days after a complaint is submitted.
The Chronicle-Tribune will continue to report on the matter as the process progresses.
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