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Friday, July 7, 2017

PAC Finds Governor's Office in Violation of FOIA


In its 8th binding opinion of 2017, the PAC issued a ruling finding the Governor's office in violation of FOIA for not responding to a request for copies of the Deputy Governor's emails and daily schedule. PAC Op. 17-008.  There really isn't much more than that to report - the Governor's office failed to respond to the request, so the PAC found the office in violation of FOIA. 

Frankly, there doesn't seem to be a good reason why the PAC made this a binding opinion. It doesn't provide any new guidance to public bodies that we haven't seen in so many other binding opinions - i.e., if someone files a FOIA request, you have to respond to it. As I've noted before on the blog, it would be helpful to public bodies if the PAC were more transparent with its advisory opinions  and posted them on its website. These advisory opinions (which make up more than 90% of the opinions issued by the PAC) often provide interpretations of unique issues that public bodies face in complying with FOIA and OMA.  

Post Authored by Julie Tappendorf

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