From AnnArbor.com, December 2, 2011 -
Ann Arbor officials have denied AnnArbor.com's request for a draft copy of a new report on fire department staffing levels.
Getting your FOIA request rejected is the first step, not the last step, in the process of determining what is going on. Always appeal your rejections - there is always a reasonable second opinion to be had, and in Michigan it comes free of charge and without the need for a lawsuit. For every rejection, there is a counter-argument, and if you are in a competent news organization there is always some angle to the story that can be followed up with an appeal out of the clerical bureaucracy and into the leadership level.
From the Ann Arbor Chronicle, December 21, 2011: Column: FOIA Hazards, Christmas Gifts
Yelling FOIA in a democratic theater generates backdraft, by Dave Askins.
During the extension, I approached (city administrator Steve) Powers, essentially outside the formal mechanism of the FOIA process. My pitch to Powers was not a legal argument. My pitch was based on the organizational interests of the city and the public interest of the community. We met on Friday, Dec. 16.
In that meeting, Powers assured me the draft report, the final report (which is still watermarked “draft”) and the maps would be released the following week. And the records were, in fact, released. We withdrew our FOIA request when we got the information we requested.
Indeed, the fire report has been released. It recommends a bunch of changes to the way the city staffs its fire department, and notably to me at least a recommendation that the city use mini fire trucks equipped with foam-based fire fighting tools to respond rapidly to fires with smaller crews needed to work the equipment. It's a big report, and the city is still digesting it - it's also a report that cost more than $30,000, and that the city paid for in July but didn't release until the end of the year.
