Anyone in Stafford might want to be there

Free Lance-Star: Stafford County could soon set specific rates that supervisors may charge for responding to requests under the Freedom of Information Act. The Board of Supervisors will discuss a new FOIA policy at Tuesday’s meeting, along with revisions to the board’s bylaws. State law dictates what information localities must provide for public records requests, but it does not outline how much may be charged to do so.

Stafford is moving toward the top of the list of "bad" local government.

They are in serious violation of the air-gun ordinance, and have ignored my previous communications on the matter. I plan to ramp up my efforts soon.

This FOIA stuff is even worse, the article outlines some serious violations of the spirit of the FOIA concept.

TFred

“When people are issuing broad FOIA requests that require days upon days to sift through documents, that’s something that’s above and beyond what’s reasonable,” said Sterling, adding that he’d have to take vacation days to fulfill the request.

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Sounds to me like this is more of a issue of organization, rather than it being a 'time consuming' issue. If it takes days to sift through documents to find what somebody is requesting, it sounds to me like they just need to organize their documents better.

Recently, Supervisor Cord Sterling charged $1,240 to fulfill a FOIA request—$155 per hour for eight hours. That rate was based on what he’s paid as a the vice president of Aerospace Industries Association to search his personal email account that contains his correspondence as a supervisor.

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^ That's the biggest pile of BS! 8 HOURS! Come on... Last time I checked just about everything now a days has some sort of search or sort feature. If you can't find something in YOUR own personal e-mail you should be fired.

Is it even legal to charge for Public Records?

More information on this:

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2012/052012/05152012/700312

TFred

Here's the agenda item from the meeting this afternoon (3pm work session). Local reporter tweeted that the board approved the new fee structure.

http://bos.stafford.va.us/05152012/3b.pdf

TFred