Date Posted: Friday, February 15th, 2019
The Petitioners alleged that a wastewater working group established by the City of Rehoboth was meeting privately and without public notice.
DECIDED: The working group is a public body subject to the open meetings provisions of FOIA and therefore violated FOIA. This Office recommended the group meet publicly in accordance with FOIA’s open meeting requirements going forward and make existing minutes (if any) of past meetings available to the public. If meetings minutes do not exist but the meeting was recorded, the City is recommended to recreate those minutes and make them publicly available.
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Date Posted: Friday, February 15th, 2019
The Petitioner alleged the Division of Corporation’s fees for certain business records violated FOIA by exceeding the fee scale outlined in FOIA.
DECIDED: No FOIA violation was found. A separate statute establishes the fees for the requested records and specifically exempts them from FOIA’s fee provisions.
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Date Posted: Friday, February 15th, 2019
The Petitioner alleged that the City of Wilmington’s decision to use an outside vendor to perform the search and production of emails was unreasonable and that the fee estimate was unreasonably high.
DECIDED: No FOIA violation was found. The City presented affidavits supporting that the use of a vendor was reasonably required. Also, it was determined that the City adequately demonstrated that the outside vendor’s fee estimate did not violate FOIA.
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Date Posted: Tuesday, January 29th, 2019
The petitioner requested records regarding a site which was the subject of an environmental enforcement action. DNREC denied the request pursuant to pending or potential litigation exemption, and the petitioner alleged that DNREC improperly withheld records under this exemption.
DECIDED: No FOIA violation was found, as the requested records related to the subject matter of pending litigation between the petitioner’s clients and DNREC.
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Date Posted: Friday, December 7th, 2018
Petitioner alleged that DELJIS improperly withheld information from a database. DECIDED: As Petitioner is not a citizen of Delaware, DELJIS properly asserted in the denial that it was not required to fulfill the request.
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Date Posted: Friday, December 7th, 2018
Petitioner alleged that several estimated charges for production of the requested records were unreasonable under FOIA. DECIDED: The City provided sufficient evidence that they had complied with FOIA’s requirements to support their final estimated fees.
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Date Posted: Friday, December 7th, 2018
Petitioner alleged that DNREC improperly denied records request for several reasons: 1) the denial was in violation of another Delaware statute; 2) DNREC provided insufficient justification for the denial; and 3) the exemptions for pending or potential litigation and investigatory records did not apply to the requested records. DECIDED: This Office does not have the authority under the FOIA statute to determine whether another statute was violated. DNREC provided sufficient justification for its denial. DNREC appropriately cited the pending litigation exemption because the individual requesting records is a member of the entity that is actively involved in a pending administrate appeal with DNREC.
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Date Posted: Friday, December 7th, 2018
Petitioner alleged that DNREC improperly withheld database records and did not provide sufficient assistance in identifying and locating responsive records. DECIDED: DNREC is not required by FOIA to create a new record to provide the information sought and that DNREC sufficiently provided reasonable assistance to identify and locate the information sought.
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Date Posted: Monday, October 22nd, 2018
Petitioner alleged that he was entitled to receive Delaware Department of Insurance (“DOI”) records because DOI denied records in bad faith, was required to provide records to non-citizens of Delaware, and was required to provide the records pursuant to another Delaware statute. DECIDED: DOI did not violate FOIA as alleged.
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Date Posted: Thursday, October 11th, 2018
Petitioner alleged that the Town Manager and Police Chief lacked the authority to execute certain documents, that the Town Manager and Police Chief are a public body that must hold open meetings, and that the public interest in these documents must trigger open meeting requirements. DECIDED: No FOIA violation was found. Questions of municipal law are outside the scope of FOIA.
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