Civil Division – New Castle County December 17, 1999
Mr. Robert E. Brown By Facsimile (652-5099) and First Class Mail
1024 Walnut Street
Wilmington, DE 19801
Dear Mr. Brown:
This will acknowledge your hand delivery on December 14, 1999, of an undated Freedom of Information Complaint against the Delaware Department of Transportation and the City of Wilmington with respect to a project which you allege has violated 17 Del. C. § 1313 and 22 Del. C. § 303-305.
As a matter of law, this office cannot consider any complaint against the Delaware Department of Transportation. Under 29 Del. C. § 10005 (f) no complaint against a department of state government which the Attorney General is obliged to represent shall be the subject of a complaint filed by any citizen under 29 Del. C. § 10005 (e).
With respect to the city of Wilmington, you have not alleged a specific meeting to which you were denied access nor have you alleged that there are any documents to which you have been refused access for purposes of inspection and photocopying. You verbally stated to me that you were denied access to meetings which did not occur under 17 Del. C. § 1313 because no notices were sent out as required for a road closure. However, the provisions of 17 Del. C. § 1313 apply to Superior Court proceedings for the vacation or abandonment of a public road and not to a public meeting of a public body as the same is defined in the Freedom of Information Act. Likewise, the provisions of Title 22 that you cite relate to municipal zoning regulations and the promulgation and enforcement of those regulations. 29 Del. C. § 10005(a) prohibits consideration of any complaint not filed within six months of the date of the alleged violation. You have not identified any meeting during the six months prior to your complaint to which you have been denied access.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, the jurisdiction of the Attorney General is limited to the determination of whether a citizen has been denied access to public records or to meetings that were in fact conducted but either not properly noticed or not conducted in an open manner as required by Delaware law. If a municipal agency failed to conduct a meeting required by law, a citizen affected by that action may pursue any appropriate legal remedy provided for by the particular statute involved, in this case the zoning or road closure statutes which you referenced in your complaint letter. The Department of Justice has no jurisdiction to enforce Title 17 or Title 22 actions against a municipality on behalf of a private citizen. See 29 Del. C. § 2504.
Since you have not articulated either in your letter or in our meeting of December 14, 1999 that a violation of the Freedom of Information Act has or is about to occur, your request for relief under the Freedom of Information Act is hereby denied.
Very truly yours,
Michael J. Rich
State Solicitor
cc: The Honorable M. Jane Brady
W. Michael Tupman, Deputy Attorney General
Frederick H.Schranck,, Deputy Attorney General
Philip G. Johnson

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