Posted by John on October 16, 2004 at 24:09:01:
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FOIA for cities/counties? - Posted by Dennis
Posted by Dennis on October 14, 2004 at 11:24:10:
Id like to extract some information from some city and county departments that isnt available on their websites and may require some digging on their part. Yes, Ill try a winsome smile and fresh doughnuts first, but if that doesnt work, are there more coercive measures to get access to public information at the city/county level? Would the Freedom of Information Act cover this?
Tks,
Dennis
Re: FOIA for cities/counties? - Posted by T Henderson
Posted by T Henderson on October 18, 2004 at 07:25:41:
You say that you need information “that isn`t available on their websites and may require some digging.” Then, do exactly what would have been done 10+ years ago (before most cities/counties had web sites): Find out what department has the information you want. Find out, in general, what records are retained, what department has them, how they are filed, where they are filed, and do the digging yourself. This will take some face and/or phone time with the city/county personnel during their normal working hours, and it will likely require visits to the county administrative building, court house or city hall. Be polite and ask for help, but expect to do the digging yourself or pay some one to dig for you. This is the way that it has been done for hundreds of years, and it still works. Not all information is available over the internet. If you will be specific about the types of information that you are wanting, I will give you some suggestions, if I have experience in that area of “digging.”
Re: FOIA for cities/counties? - Posted by Bill H
Posted by Bill H on October 17, 2004 at 19:03:10:
You might have better luck at the local library archives or your local newspaper archives.
Good Luck,
Bill H
Re: FOIA for cities/counties? - Posted by Tom-FL
Posted by Tom-FL on October 16, 2004 at 23:53:54:
– may require some digging on their part –
Be prepared to pay bigtime for it then. One of our local TV News stations just did a story on how they demanded financial docs under FOIA from a state university and got a bill of $87,000. The university sited the difficulty in searching out the documents.
The FOIA says you are entitled to the info, not that it will be free.