Raimondo Admin Issues $3,900 Bill for Public Records Request for Data After Months of Delays
Thursday, June 11, 2020
Nearly three months after first requesting data on the coronavirus modeling developed by the administration of Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo -- data the administration said drove the Governor's decision-making process -- GoLocal received a bill for $3,900.
Raimondo first discussed the state's modeling and how the modeling data was driving her administration's decision-making in mid-March, but repeatedly refused to release the data to the public
After weeks of delays by Raimondo to release her administration's modeling data, GoLocal filed on April 3 a request for documents under the Access to Public Records Act. GoLocal first sought the modeling data on March 17. The modeling data drove the state's decision when to close businesses and schools. The implications of the decisions was to cause tens of thousands to be laid off.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTRaimondo, under her executive powers, issued an Executive Order on March 16 that allowed governmental agencies to delay responses to requests for public information.
The letter (see below) requires payment of $3,900 to process the request, and ends with, "Thank you for your interest in keeping government open and accountable to the public."
In an email from GoLocal on March 17 to Joseph Wendelken at the RI Department of Health, GoLocal requested:
Joseph,
Can you send us copies of your modeling for the number of RIers that could be impacted -- best and worst-case scenarios.
Thanks,
Follow up emails were sent on March 17, March 18, and three more times in March including, a March 31 email:
Will the Department of Health continue to refuse to release modeling of the impact of the coronavirus.
The CDC and the task force is expected to release their data today.
As you may have remembered we asked for this data a couple of weeks ago.
Cost, Delays, No Promises
Steve Brown, Executive Director of the Rhode Island ACLU questions the Raimondo administration's demands.
"Because of the important public interest in the particular records being sought here, we believe the Department should be waiving, or at least significantly reducing, the charge for gaining access to these documents, assuming that the almost $4,000 cost estimate is accurate," said Brown.
"Just as importantly, we are troubled by the state's position that, even if this hefty fee is paid, the Department reserves the right to withhold most of the records anyway after reviewing them. The public should not be required to pay government agencies for the privilege of having their access to records denied," added Brown.
Press and Transparency Groups Calls for Raimondo to Repeal Executive Order
On May 28, GoLocal reported that seven organizations called on Raimondo to repeal her then two-and-a-half-month old executive order giving public bodies extra time to respond to open records requests, calling the order “unwarranted and extremely damaging to the public interest."
The Access to Public Records Act gives public bodies ten business days to respond to a request for records, and an additional twenty business days if it would constitute an “undue burden” to reply in that initial timeframe.
However, the Governor’s executive order has given agencies twenty more business days to respond, which, the letter notes, means that important records can be withheld from the public for almost two-and-a-half months. The order, issued in mid-March, was initially scheduled to last a month, but has been extended twice.
In the letter from the seven groups challenged the Raimondo administration's rationale and repeated extension of her Executive Order.
The stated rationales that your office recently provided the New York Times for renewing this EO only heighten our concerns. One reason given was that with “many employees [] working around the clock supporting the crisis at hand, it severely impacts our ability to both attend to the crisis and meet [APRA] deadlines.” This implies that the public’s right to know is somehow in conflict with dealing with the crisis, when just the opposite is true: government transparency is more, not less, critical during emergency situations, and has a major role to play in these times. Suggesting that prompt compliance with APRA is a distraction from other government responsibilities trivializes the statutorily-embedded notion that the public’s right to know is a “principle[] of the utmost importance in a free society.” R.I.G.L. §38-2-1.
Your office also suggested that the harm to the public in delaying access to key documents relating to the crisis, such as government contracts, was overblown because the press has “ample opportunity to hold the administration accountable” through your daily press conferences where reporters can “address anything that was unclear.” But to equate news conference availability with public record access is a dangerous and disingenuous non sequitur. It’s hard to ask meaningful questions about a document that’s unseen. In any event, the executive order allows agencies to delay access to any public record, not just those relating to the pandemic-related focus of your news conferences.
The groups signing the letter were ACCESS/RI, American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, Common Cause Rhode Island, New England First Amendment Coalition, League of Women Voters of Rhode Island, Rhode Island Press Association and the Rhode Island Broadcasters Association.
State's Response to GoLocalProv's APRA Request
On Wednesday, June 10, GoLocal received the following from the Raimondo Administration:
"The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) is in receipt of your request for public records seeking information from RIDOH as follows:
-Copies of modeling data on the coronavirus impact on Rhode Island
-List of vendors working on such data
-Emails between DOH and the Governor's office staff with the vendor and contracts issued to the vendor
Please be advised that there will be a charge for the cost of searching, retrieving, reviewing, and, if necessary, redacting documents at a rate of $15.00 per hour, with the first hour free pursuant to R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-4(b), estimated as follows:
$3,915 = 261 hours staff time @ $15 an hour
-$15.00 (1st hour free)
$3,900 = total estimated cost
This estimate reflects the following necessary activities--printing, reviewing, redacting, and scanning of redacted files. The estimate was based on a search according to your request, which returned approximately 1,305 emails (with their attachments). Each email (and its attachment) is subject to the process described above, and must be reviewed to assess whether it includes information protected from disclosure by any exemption included in R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-2(4).
The total of these activities for this volume of material has been roughly estimated to be 261 hours. We err on the side of over-inclusiveness in our estimates so as to limit the cases where additional money is required to release responsive data, and acknowledge that the actual search could take less time to complete (which would also mean that excess money would be refunded).
Please also be advised that payment does not guarantee that the records you have requested constitute public records (in whole or in part, i.e., redacted), but only authorizes RIDOH to conduct its search and retrieval to determine if responsive records exist, and if so, whether they are public records (or whether an exception to disclosure under the Access to Public Records Act exists). Should actual search, retrieval, and copying fees exceed pre-payment, RIDOH will advise you and seek authorization before continuing. Should your pre-payment exceed actual search, retrieval, and copying, you will, of course, be reimbursed by this agency.
Please note: the time period for RIDOH to respond to your request is tolled as of the date of this letter, pursuant to R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-7, pending pre-payment and authorization from you to proceed with the search, retrieval and redaction process.
If you would like to go forward with your request, please submit your check for $3,900 made payable to the R.I. General Treasurer, and forward to Rhode Island Department of Health, Attn: Pamela Lopes, Three Capitol Hill, Room 404, Providence, RI 02908. Upon receipt of your check, RIDOH will go forward with retrieving the documents, redact them as necessary, note which documents are being withheld, and why, and permit you to review the responsive documents prior to photocopy or electronic scanning pursuant to this APRA request.
Thank you for your interest in keeping government open and accountable to the public."
Joseph Wendelken | Public Information Officer
Rhode Island Department of Health
3 Capitol Hill, Room 401; Providence, Rhode Island 02908
Desk: 401-222-3998 | Mobile: 401-378-0704 | Weekend press contact: 401-641-8726
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