Urbana City staff continue to commit FOIA violations against the residents of Urbana. This request was in regards to police complaints.
Lizabeth Kay Meharry illegally assessed $20 in fees and also sought to charge for postage. Meharry also claimed that gathering certain emails would be unduly burdensome. Meharry also presented a strange requirement to receive the documents by mail:
“To receive your records by U.S. mail, please provide a legible photocopy of your photo identification and a stamped, self-addressed 5” x 7” or larger envelope along with your payment.”
Even more bizarre, Meharry suggested that redacting the records would make them bigger and therefore more expensive:
“Portions of the records you have requested may be exempt from disclosure under FOIA. These portions will be redacted from the records being released to you. The redactions will increase the size of electronic records, which may result in an additional fee. In this case, the City will provide you with an accounting of the final fee.”
After an appeal letter to the Public Access Counselor (PAC), FOIA Officer Curt Borman rescinded the $20 fee and the postage fees, admitting that those fees were not lawful. Borman also rescinded the government-issued ID requirement.
Borman, a retired police officer, still seeks to substantially deny the FOIA request on the basis that gathering the emails related to the police complaints would be unduly burdensome. For a public body to make an argument of undue burden, they must demonstrate that the burden outweighs the public interest. In this case, Borman means to argue that police complaints serve little public interest.
The appeal to the PAC also alleges that Urbana is wrongfully charging $7.97 for a USB flash drive. Urbana has a long history of emailing FOIA documents and not charging for storage media. A quick online search shows that 16GB usb flash drives can be purchased for about $2 each. Urbana charges $8 for their identical 4GB versions.
At the same time, Urbana does continue to email FOIA documents to requesters, but they selectively discriminate against certain requesters and certain types of documents (and having nothing to do with the size of the files). Borman’s idea for charging requesters for storage media also gives him an additional opportunity to deny FOIA requests, should the requester fail to pay in time. The City website does still show email delivery as an option, but Borman appears to be running his own show now.
Mayor Diane Marlin, City Attorney James Simon, City Administrator Carol Mitten, and FOIA Officer Curt Borman have all repeatedly affirmed the legality of their actions in regards to FOIA over the past two months.
Here is a video of Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin advocating for the illegal FOIA fees:
This article was edited to remove personal identifying information.