FOIA Coordinator by Edward Vielmetti

ProPublica: TSA takes 4 years to respond to FOIA request

One for the "delays" category, this ProPublica report from Michael Grabell on waiting four years for a request from the Transportation Security Administration on reports on passenger complaints:

When I made a similar FOIA request in 2008, I assumed the TSA would respond in a few months. Government agencies have about a month to respond to public record requests, though they often take longer. I figured even if their response took months, I'd be able to repeat it regularly to get a timely, inside look as to what passengers were complaining about and find out about incidents that required some more digging.

Boy, was I wrong.

Slow responses to requests to federal agencies is the norm; if ProPublica had wanted to speed up this process, they could have gone to court.

As Joshua Schachter once wrote about something that wasn't going very fast:

I guess that's better than having a FOIA request in an inner loop, though.

 

FOIA is not a channel for your anger

Parents in the Ann Arbor Public Schools were told by the superintendant that if they wanted detailed answers to the questions they had about school policy and budget changes that they should file FOIA requests. This did not go over well, and now some parents are angry not just at the changes proposed but also that they have to go through a layer of bureaucracy to get more information in time to have informed responses for budget deadlines.

FOIA is not a good channel for your anger. If you are presented with a request or a requirement to fill out a form to get the information you want, it's better to be careful and edit out your irritation from the actual request. Be straightforward in asking for the records that you know to exist, and take that first paragraph where you are upset that you have to go through the process and delete it before it's sent.

More: Audience demands answers from Ann Arbor school administration (AnnArbor.com) ; AAPS Budget and FOIA: Transparency, where art thou? (Ann Arbor Schools Musings)

Feces and FOIA

Dog feces, that is.

From "South Poop", a Chicago South Loop blog:

Courtesy of Dana Weems, a writer for ChicagoTalks.org, South Poop has received a copy of a City of Chicago FOIA request that lists the citations for the last three years under the City’s Removal of Excrement ordinance 7-12-420.

From AnnArbor.com, on a story regarding dog excrement at Slauson Middle School:

Who is actually responsible for the poop being left in the field? Are the offenses occurring during the hour a week unleashed dogs roam free or in the 167 hours in which they don’t?

I don’t know. Feces are not subject to FOIA. But the fact of the matter is, when “it” happens,unlike Forrest Gump, people are going to take steps to avoid it.

At least in Chicago, feces are subject to FOIA.