Politics & Government

Beyond The Docket Part I: FCPS FOIA Requests Take Seven Months to Fill

Lawyers in this week's hearings about alleged FOIA violations say delays were due to snow cancellations, exchanges after business hours

Beyond the Docket is a two-part series looking at court documents filed in the case between Clifton resident Jill Hill and Fairfax County Public Schools. This segment examines FOIA requests filed by Ms. Hill.

Clifton resident Jill Hill made three Freedom of Information requests from Fairfax County Public Schools—a process that took nearly seven months— Hill is accusing the Fairfax County School Board of violating Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and open meetings laws by holding “secret meetings” through e-mail.

Nearly 200 pages of e-mails received by Hill and filed with the court in advance of this week’s hearings include correspondence between School Board members on June 10, June 28, and July 8 from 6-11 p.m. — the night of the vote to close Clifton Elementary School. They also include some e-mails related to the school’s closing sent by Board member Elizabeth Bradsher between July 1 and Sept. 16.

Court records show Hill first requested board member e-mails before, during, and after their decision to close Clifton Elementary School on July 19, 11 days after the vote.

Paul Regnier, a spokesperson for FCPS and its FOIA officer, said in an e-mail to Hill that documents were sent on July 27, eight days after her request. According to e-mails filed with the court, Hill did not receive those documents until Aug. 15.

State FOIA law says public entities must fulfill requests within five business days. If the request is large, or will take more time to complete, the entities can take seven more days to fulfill the request, after notifying the requester in writing. If a request will take beyond 12 days, the department or agency can petition the court for an extension.

Subsequent requests were made by Hill for other documents, or, for documents that were withheld by FPCS within her initial request. In court this week, FCPS lawyers gave reasons for why the delivery of some of this information was delayed, among them, snow days, requests that arrived after close of business, e-mails that dealt with personnel issues, and misunderstandings of what Hill had requested.

FCPS lawyers also said Hill requested more documents earlier this year and got them all — 15,500 pages that amounted to 1.3 gigabytes. 

The attorneys for FCPS agreed with Hill's attorneys that the county should not have charged Hill in advance last summer for an FOIA request she made that cost $178. FCPS can only charge in advance if the amount is more than $200.

Lawyers in the hearing have until mid-march to file post-trial briefings. A decision isn’t expected until the end of the month.

Read on to see what happened between Hill’s first FOIA request in July and February, when she received the last of her requested correspondence. Click here to see the court documents in full.

FOIA requests by Clifton resident Jill Hill:

▪                July 19, 2010. Hill requests all electronic correspondence between school board members on June 10 from 6-11 p.m., June 28 6 p.m.-1 a.m., July 8 6-11 p.m.

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▪                July 21. Sara Kolb, management technician for Fairfax County Communication Department, asks for a clarification on her FOIA request.

▪                Aug. 1. Hill emails Regnier again when she doesn’t get any other response to her FOIA request.

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▪                Aug. 2. Regnier says the response was sent by mail on July 27. He attaches a scanned copy. He quotes cost for the records at $178.36.

▪                Aug. 5. Hill to Regnier, “...It is my clear understanding that your delay in providing me the information I requested under FOIA was inappropriate.” She cites FOIA time limits in responding to requests and says she doesn’t have to pay upfront if the quote is under $200. Regnier argues that Hill didn’t agree to pay the fee until Aug. 2. The search for records begins.

▪                Aug. 15. Hill receives her requested records. 23 pages were withheld, along with most individual emails, to not make public names of personnel and students, and to comply with attorney-client privilege.

▪                Sept. 13: Hill complains to Regnier that FCPS did not adequately fulfill her request. She says that many of the emails were inappropriately left out of the FOIA records and none were between school board members as per her request. She also notes that attorney-client privilege doesn’t seem to work for the emails missing from her requested records. Hill asks for them again.

▪                Sept. 20. Regnier tells Hill she has to pay before his office will search for more records. These extra records, he said, would cost more than her first request.

▪                Oct. 20. Hill says she does not expect to pay any more for records she requested from the very beginning.

▪                Oct. 25: An email from Regnier says FCPS has yet to receive Hill’s check.

▪                Oct. 28: Hill emails Regnier asking if FCPS received her check.

▪                Oct. 29: Regnier tells Hill her check has been received and his staff will start searching for the correspondence.

▪                Oct. 29: Kolb offers all communications related to CES sent by Bradsher between July 1 and Sept. 16, as well as all third party communications sent to the school board relating to CES during the same time period. These records are available at no cost because they had already been sought out and organized due to a separate FOIA request.

▪                Nov. 5. FCPS tells Hill they won’t be able to fill her request in five days. They, instead, will work to complete her request by FOIA-allowed supplemental seven-day period.

▪                Nov. 11. Hill gets her requested correspondence. A total of seven pages were left out, six of which were withheld due to attorney-client privilege..

▪                Jan. 20, 2011. Hill requests all correspondence (written or electronic) between Jan. 1-20 relating to CES with which two or more school board members as author and/or recipient.

▪                Jan. 28. Regnier says FCPS can’t fill her new request because it is too ambiguous.

▪                Feb. 4. Hill denies that her request is ambiguous. She includes a check for $400 to pay for the request without delay.

▪                Feb. 15. Hill receives her records. More than 76 emails were redacted for the same reasons as the missing records from her last two requests.

Mary Ann Barton also reported for this story.

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