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A conservative think tank in Washington state filed a public disclosure request (similar to a FOIA request) for search of emails and other state records for terms commonly used by lefty trolls when discussing us right-wingers. The search terms also include "conservative, Catholic, Christian, right wing, far right, racist, teabagger and hicks."
The purpose is to see if the blue state bureaucrats are engaging in similar monkey business as the IRS. I'm betting that the answer will almost certainly be yes. I think this is a brilliant move by the WA Freedom Foundation, and other states with disclosure laws might take note.
I applaud people using FOIA requests to get information from the government. It is important to keep government as transparent as possible.
But I also think that when organizations want to go fishing in government business, that the costs to fulfill these FOIA requests is enormous. That should be a consideration, too.
I applaud people using FOIA requests to get information from the government. It is important to keep government as transparent as possible.
But I also think that when organizations want to go fishing in government business, that the costs to fulfill these FOIA requests is enormous. That should be a consideration, too.
The people making the request pay for the production of documents.
The people making the request pay for the production of documents.
Yes. And?
The more sweeping a request, the more expensive it is to fulfill. To get every e-mail that has one of a number of keywords or key phrases, from every operating system in the state, is a daunting task. To get people to review those e-mails to determine which qualify for FOIA and which don't, to review those e-mails to redact personal information, and then to combine those e-mails into an accessible data set, be it on a storage device or hard copy documents, is expensive. The people making the request don't pay for everything that goes into the process. And that should be a consideration. I'm not arguing that people shouldn't make such requests. I'm arguing they should think about the requests, and what they are hoping to find, and what they are hoping to accomplish, and what the costs are.
But I also think that when organizations want to go fishing in government business, that the costs to fulfill these FOIA requests is enormous. That should be a consideration, too.
Government agencies are often trying to use the excuse of expense but the fact is they can compile these documents in very little time as long as they are electronic. The big issue is confidentiality rules and such and the government agencies need to adjust their practices such as marking email beforehand for review so it's flagged if it comes up in search. This is not rocket science for those of us that understand the tech.
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