Requests Lead To Resignation

RECORDER CALLS QUERIES HARASSMENT

A rash of requests for information from the Tontitown city government caused the new recorder-treasurer to resign and left officials asking for an Attorney General’s opinion.

Kara Jo McKinley, who was appointed recorder-treasurer July 3, resigned effective Sept. 7.

In her resignation letter, McKinley said she couldn’t devote 100 percent of her time to City Hall. McKinley is a student at the University of Arkansas.

AT A GLANCE

The Arkansas Freedom Of Information Act

Intent of the law and penalties for violation:

Arkansas Code 25-19-102. Legislative intent.

It is vital in a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner so that the electors shall be advised of the performance of public officials and of the decisions that are reached in public activity and in making public policy. Toward this end, this chapter is adopted, making it possible for them or their representatives to learn and to report fully the activities of their public officials.

Arkansas Code 25-19-104. Penalty.

Any person who negligently violates any of the provisions of this chapter shall be guilty of a Class C misdemeanor.

Source: The Arkansas Freedom Of Information Act

The budget has been a huge issue, the letter said, but could have been handled if she hadn’t received multiple Freedom of Information Act requests each week.

“I realize it is public information and my job to handle each one, but the requests have turned into harassment,” the letter states.

McKinley said she didn’t have any comment to add to her letter.

The last request McKinley received, said Mayor Tommy Granata, was from Mick Wagner, the former director of the Tontitown Water and Sewer Department. Wagner is now chairman of the Tontitown Planning Commission.

The request asked for Web access to all email sent or received with a tontitown.com address. The request covered Jan. 1, 2011, to Sept. 3, 2012.

“That is 22,000 emails,” Granata said.

The Attorney General’s office has been asked by the city’s attorney if the request falls within the Freedom of Information Act, Granata said.

The request came, according to an email message from Wagner, after personal information was distributed by a city official. Some personal information on Alicia Collins, who applied for the recorder-treasurer position McKinley received, was forwarded by email to the mayor and City Council members.

“That is the only ones that received the email,” Granata said. “It did not go to everyone like Mick said.”

Collins was then an employee of the Water and Sewer Department, according to Tontitown council meeting minutes.

Access to all the email would allow him to see if other personal information was sent out, Wagner’s message said.

That access could be the problem, said Mark Hayes, general consul for the Arkansas Municipal League. Cities and other governmental entities must redact, by removing or marking out, certain personal information before releasing records through the Freedom of Information Act. The information includes Social Security numbers.

“It would be difficult to redact personal information when a person has that much access to the email server,” Hayes said.

Tontitown officials usually print up information requested and mark out the personal information by hand, Granata said. That process for 22,000 email messages would take a very long time, he said.

“I’ve only got one employee at City Hall,” Granata said. “It would take forever.”

A spokesman for the Attorney General’s office said he didn’t know of any previous opinion that addressed this aspect of the Freedom of Information Act.

Wagner FOI

Kara;

I make this request under FOIA.

I realize that you may be considered the primary contact point for most FOIA requests made to the city; however that may be a misconception by some since you certainly may not possess certain city documents.

I realize that FOIA request may be made in several manners , including email, anytime during normal office hours which in Tontitown's case is weekdays, 8 AM - 4:30 PM.

I realize the FOIA law requires that you forward any requests for documents which you do not possess.

I also am aware that the city ,to afford transparency to the public , has chosen an outside contractor to host email for the city's domain when enable web access of city emails.

I also realize that in recent years the courts have ruled that private sub-contractors of a public entity are not subject to FOIA; however the courts also ruled that the public entity has to produce (non-exempt documents) contractor documents.

I realize my request below is a little different since these are clearly city documents and not those of a contractor, but are maintained by a contractor.

I realize that you do not maintain control of the city's email archival server which houses city emails using tontitown.com domain.

I also am aware that ( in most cases) the time to setup an access portal takes only a few minutes.

To avoid any confusion or delays of my request, I therefore have provided copy to the administrator of the city email server.

Should the city attorney not feel the city is compelled to comply to my request I would like to hear why.

Please provide the following:

1) Web portal access to all emails sent or received from 1/1/2011 thru 9/3/2012, for any address with tontitown.com extent.

Since I have outlined why this is a very simple request that takes little effort to comply with, I request access to this portal by noon today.

Respectfully

Mick Wagner

Cell# 479-790-3480

Fax# 413-254-8021 (note this is an efax #)

email [email protected]

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