Processing Public Record Requests – General

Processing Public Record Requests – General. A. Providing access. MDEQ acknowledges that “providing access to public records is a duty” and that “any person shall have the right to inspect, copy or mechanically reproduce or obtain a reproduction of any public record” in accordance with these 1 As a general rule, the more specific a requestor is about a public records request, the more likely MDEQ will be able to locate those records in response to the request. If a request does not reasonably describe the records being requested, the agency’s response to the request may be delayed. policies. Miss. Code Ann. §§ 25-61-1 and 25-61-5 (Rev. 2010). The FOI Officer or his or her designee will process requests in the order allowing the most requests to be processed in the most efficient manner. B. Inspection Location and Appointment. Public records requests are managed by MDEQ's FOI Officer. When an individual submits a written request, the FOI Officer, or his or her designee, determines the exact location of the records requested. All records normally will be reviewed at the MDEQ office location where the records are housed. If an individual seeks to review records that are housed at multiple MDEQ locations, the FOI Officer will work with other MDEQ staff and the individual requesting the record review to set up an appointment at the appropriate MDEQ location. C. Records. A requestor shall not take MDEQ records from MDEQ offices. If the requestor wishes to have copies of the records made instead of simply inspecting them, he or she should so indicate and make arrangements to pay for copies of the records. Pursuant to Rule 2.8 of this regulation, standard photocopies will be provided at the approximate cost of searching, reviewing and/or duplicating the public records. The copying fee schedule will be posted at the FOI review room. The copying fee schedule may be amended and adjusted to cover the costs of complying with FOI requests. D. Acknowledging receipt of request. Within seven (7) working days of receipt of the request, the FOI Officer will do one or more of the following: 1. Provide a reasonable estimate of when records will be available; 2. Request clarification where a request is unclear or does not sufficiently identify the requested records. Such clarification may be requested and provided by telephone. As a result of a clarification, the FOI Officer or his or her designee may revise the time estimate of when the requested records will be available; 3. Make the records available for inspection or copying in whole or in installments1 (where applicable); or 4. Deny the request. E. Time Limit for Response. MDEQ will strive to provide records not exempt from disclosure for review or reproduction as soon as practicable, but no later than seven (7) 1 Production of documents in installments is limited to situations where the requestor has made a large public records request which cannot reasonably be processed or produced within the required response time. See R. 2.4.E. for further information. working days from the date of receipt of the request, as allowed by the Act. The seven (7) working day response period will not include the day the request was initially received. For time calculation purposes the seven (7) working days will begin on the next working day. If MDEQ is unable to produce the documents within the seven (7) working days from the date of the receipt of the request, MDEQ will provide a written explanation (which may be provided by e-mail) to the person making the request which indicates the records are being gathered and specifies with particularity why the records cannot be produced within the seven-day period. 1. If MDEQ is unable to produce a public record by the seventh working day after the date of the receipt of the request, MDEQ will provide the record no later than fourteen (14) working days from MDEQ’s receipt of the original request after sending written notification to the requestor or at a later date upon mutual agreement of the parties. Requests for records in storage will be provided within seven (7) working days of availability of such records to MDEQ. If MDEQ determines the request would cause a disruption of business, the time period for production of records may be adjusted. 2. Providing records in installments. When the request is for a large number of records, the FOI Officer or his or her designee will provide access for inspection and copying in installments, if he or she reasonably determines that it would be practical to provide the records in that way. If, within thirty (30) days, the requestor fails to inspect the entire set of records or one or more of the installments, the FOI Officer or his or her designee may stop searching for the remaining records and close the request. 3. Supplemental, Amended, or Additional Requests. MDEQ treats supplemental, amended, or new requests by the requestor as new requests for purposes of determining all applicable time limitations. F. Protecting the rights of others. In the event that the requested records contain information that may affect rights of others and may be exempt from disclosure, the FOI Officer may, prior to providing the records, provide notice to such others whose rights may be affected by the disclosure. The notice to the affected persons will include a copy of the request. Such notice should be given so as to make it possible for those other persons to contact the requestor and ask him or her to revise the request. If necessary, the other person may seek a hearing on its confidentiality claim before the commission to prevent or limit the disclosure of the information pursuant to Rule 2.7. G. Records exempt from disclosure. Some records are exempt from disclosure, in whole or in part. If MDEQ believes that a record is exempt from disclosure and should be withheld, the appropriate personnel will state the specific exemption and provide a brief explanation of why the record or a portion of the record is being withheld. If only a portion of a record is exempt from disclosure, but the remainder is not exempt, the appropriate personnel will redact the exempt portions, provide the nonexempt portions, and indicate to the requestor why portions of the record are being redacted. H. Inspection of records. 1. Hours for Records Inspection. Public records are available for inspection and copying during MDEQ’s normal business hours, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., excluding legal holidays and any days when MDEQ is not open as a result of inclement weather, loss of power, electricity or water or other circumstances. The time, place and manner of inspection and copying of records will not be allowed to interfere with other essential duties of MDEQ. Where the requestor is unable to inspect and/or copy the files within the agency’s hours of operations, as specified above, the FOI Officer will set up another reasonable time and date for inspection of the files with the requestor. 2. Inspection Location. Consistent with other demands, MDEQ shall promptly provide space to inspect public records. No member of the public may remove a document from the viewing area or disassemble or alter any document. The requestor shall indicate which documents he or she wishes to copy. 3. Time Limitation. The requestor must claim or review the assembled records within thirty days of the MDEQ notification to him or her that the records are available for inspection or copying. MDEQ will notify the requestor in writing (which may be by e-mail) of this requirement and inform the requestor that he or she should contact MDEQ to make arrangements to claim or review the records. If the requestor or a representative of the requestor fails to claim or review the records within the thirty-day period or make other arrangements, MDEQ may close the request and refile the assembled records. Other public records requests can be processed ahead of a subsequent request by the same person for the same or almost identical records, which can be processed as a new request. 4. Completion of inspection. When the inspection of the requested records is complete and all requested copies are provided, the FOI Officer or his or her designee will indicate that the MDEQ has completed a diligent search for the requested records and made any located nonexempt records available for inspection. I. Closing withdrawn or abandoned requests. When the requestor either withdraws the request or fails to fulfill his or her obligations to inspect the records or pay for the requested copies, the FOI Officer will close the request and indicate to the requestor that MDEQ has closed the request. J. Later discovered documents. If, after MDEQ has informed the requestor that it has provided all available records, MDEQ becomes aware of additional responsive documents existing at the time of the request, it will promptly inform the requestor of the additional documents and provide them on an expedited basis.