(Source: MIRS.news, Published 06/17/2024) On May 29, cycling journalist Teal Amore sent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to five state departments asking for a log of all the FOIA requests each department received for calendar year 2023.
FOIA Services Michigan received a copy of each Teal Amore request as part of its own weekly scrub of all FOIA requests sent to each state department. That's not what's interesting.
Here's what's interesting. Nearly all five departments redacted the exact same Amore letter to FOIA Services publisher Chris DeWitt differently.
The Department of Insurance and Financial Services blacked out Amore's name, media affiliation, personal blog name, address, email address and phone number.
The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs blacked out Amore's name, address, email address and phone number, but left his blog name untouched.
The Gaming Control Board blacked out Amore's address, email and phone number, but left his name and blog untouched.
The Department of Technology, Management and Budget didn't redact a single thing. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development didn't either.
DeWitt said the different approaches punctuate the frustration for people who file FOIA requests. Amid talk about expanding FOIA to the Legislature and the Governor's office, there are more practical issues with the existing FOIA law's implementation.
Since the law hasn't been substantially updated in years, compliance is all over the place, particularly as it comes to the definition of "personal information."
"It would be nice if there was a little more statewide consistency," DeWitt said.
He said the Attorney General's Office provided training and advice on FOIA, but said there weren't any strict rules the different departments needed to follow.
"There is discretion allowed, but, as I said, sometimes this can be a little bit frustrating," De Witt said.
Michigan Coalition for Open Government Executive Director Steve DELIE shared in the frustration.
He said the differences in redactions came down to the fact that each department sets their own policy regarding how to handle FOIA and there was no true, centralized training to smooth out any differences in how FOIA was handled.
"It's not just between departments. I've seen the same department process similar requests in different ways. So to me, it's really more of a training issue than anything else," Delie said.
He said there are training programs within each department, but again not a state best-practices program that could unify what was and wasn't redacted.
"There's no question that something needs to be done. Michigan is such an outlier in terms of both the quality of FOIA responses and what officials can be FOIA'd, that we really desperately need some reforms to bring us to a place where we're consistent with the rest of the country," he said.
DeWitt wasn't as optimistic about any FOIA bills returning. He said when Democrats were in the minority that they were champing at the bit to pass transparency.
He said it seemed like the FOIA bills, which included the Sens. Jeremy MOSS (D-Southfield) and Ed McBroom (R-Waucedah Twp.) bills, were being "stonewalled."
"I hope I'm wrong on this, but I am very pessimistic that this will be finalized this year. I'm just not sure there's an appetite to move forward on it, and that's a real shame for the public," DeWitt said. "The majority of the states don't have this problem."
(Source: MIRS.news, Published 06/17/2024) On May 29, cycling journalist Teal Amore sent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to five state departments asking for a log of all the FOIA requests each department received for calendar year 2023.
FOIA Services Michigan received a copy of each Teal Amore request as part of its own weekly scrub of all FOIA requests sent to each state department. That's not what's interesting.
Here's what's interesting. Nearly all five departments redacted the exact same Amore letter to FOIA Services publisher Chris DeWitt differently.
The Department of Insurance and Financial Services blacked out Amore's name, media affiliation, personal blog name, address, email address and phone number.
The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs blacked out Amore's name, address, email address and phone number, but left his blog name untouched.
The Gaming Control Board blacked out Amore's address, email and phone number, but left his name and blog untouched.
The Department of Technology, Management and Budget didn't redact a single thing. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development didn't either.
DeWitt said the different approaches punctuate the frustration for people who file FOIA requests. Amid talk about expanding FOIA to the Legislature and the Governor's office, there are more practical issues with the existing FOIA law's implementation.
Since the law hasn't been substantially updated in years, compliance is all over the place, particularly as it comes to the definition of "personal information."
"It would be nice if there was a little more statewide consistency," DeWitt said.
He said the Attorney General's Office provided training and advice on FOIA, but said there weren't any strict rules the different departments needed to follow.
"There is discretion allowed, but, as I said, sometimes this can be a little bit frustrating," De Witt said.
Michigan Coalition for Open Government Executive Director Steve DELIE shared in the frustration.
He said the differences in redactions came down to the fact that each department sets their own policy regarding how to handle FOIA and there was no true, centralized training to smooth out any differences in how FOIA was handled.
"It's not just between departments. I've seen the same department process similar requests in different ways. So to me, it's really more of a training issue than anything else," Delie said.
He said there are training programs within each department, but again not a state best-practices program that could unify what was and wasn't redacted.
"There's no question that something needs to be done. Michigan is such an outlier in terms of both the quality of FOIA responses and what officials can be FOIA'd, that we really desperately need some reforms to bring us to a place where we're consistent with the rest of the country," he said.
DeWitt wasn't as optimistic about any FOIA bills returning. He said when Democrats were in the minority that they were champing at the bit to pass transparency.
He said it seemed like the FOIA bills, which included the Sens. Jeremy MOSS (D-Southfield) and Ed McBroom (R-Waucedah Twp.) bills, were being "stonewalled."
"I hope I'm wrong on this, but I am very pessimistic that this will be finalized this year. I'm just not sure there's an appetite to move forward on it, and that's a real shame for the public," DeWitt said. "The majority of the states don't have this problem."
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