What’s up everybody? My area to blog about was the open records segment with speakers James Pewitt and John Archibald. Both of their speeches focused more on Alabama open records statutes than FOIA. However, Pewitt did provide a link that gives users an automatic draft of a FOIA request. And that link is: www.rcfp.org He also provided two helpful web sites: www.alacog.org and www.citizenaccess.org
In his segment, Pewitt provided an overview of Alabama’s laws and statutes regarding public records.
Alabama Code Section 36-12-40 states: “Every citizen has a right to inspect and take a copy
of any public writing of this state, except as otherwise expressly provided by statute.”
Pewitt said Alabama’s open records law is much more cryptic than many states and reads more like a statement of policy than anything. Generally, though, a “public writing” constitutes court records or documents made with public treasury.
However, thanks to Stone v. Consolidated Publishing, there are four specific exceptions to open records. They are the following: (1) recorded information received by a public officer in confidence; (2) sensitive personnel records, i.e. medical records; (3) pending criminal investigations; and (4) records that would be “detrimental to the public.” That last one is a little scary, and many feel it further clouded the issue. Thankfully, the burden does fall on the government to prove a document is not a public record.
Another drawback to Alabama’s law is that there is no time limit for the government entity to hand over a public record. Also, there is no specific statute limiting fees on copies of documents. In general, however, the fees should be no more than the costs to locate and copy the documents.
In his segment, Archibald provided the following tips for reporters seeking public information:
- Talk to people at the agency. Not just the mayor and councilmen, but the people in the cubicles who actually do the work. He told a story about a board of education worker who told him he might want to look through maintenance logs. After searching through hundred of note cards, he found that a 70-year-old worker had logged over $1 million in landscaping work during one summer.
- Stay on the people obligated to hand over the documents. Even when your deadline has passed, and you don’t need the document anymore. It’s important to show bureaucrats they cannot win by stalling reporters.
- If you’re told no, always take the issue to a higher authority. If a clerk says you cannot have a document, ask to speak with his or her supervisor. If the supervisor says the same thing, ask to speak with the city attorney. Your final recourse is a civil lawsuit demanding the information.
- In extreme cases, find out the programs and software used at the facility and offer to copy the documents yourself. Archibald remembered one instance where someone was going to charge him more than $2,000 for what would be the equivalent of copying a few files to a CD.
- Be polite but insistent when necessary. “Public records do not belong to the government agency. They belong to the public, they belong to you.”
- When you are denied public records, write about it.
I hope this was useful. If I’ve left anything out, please let me know. Also, I have all the handouts and audio of the speeches if anyone would be interested.
