Behind the Headlines

Great questions from Jerry Mintz (under comments Sunshine week-Part II):

“Good article, good companion editorial. But what are you (the News and/or the organizers of the ‘audit’) going to do now? Will you continue to file FOIA requests? Will you ask the attorney general to investigate what appears to be public officials ignoring and/or knowingly breaking the law? What kind of follow up are you planning? Or, as I suspect, will the News follow historic precedent and roll over when confronted with even the slightest conservative backlash? This issue is to important to walk away from. It’s a metaphor for what is is going on in Washington on a larger scale. It’s not about politics, it’s about the concept America.”

Jerry,
I contacted the Attorney General’s office last week to ask what kind of course of action we might take - and to find out if turning down the request was legal under Michigan and/or Federal law.
The answer: no comment.
Matt Frendewey, spokesperson for AG’s office, said “the reality is citizens are given the ability to act in civil action against the body of the denial, and a court will determine if it is inappropriate. But, I’m just speaking broadly here - we can’t comment one way or the other.”
Mr. Frendewey did say they’ve gotten a ton of calls on it. But his hands were tied and they weren’t able to answer any questions because it may be construed as legal advice.
I repeatedly asked if turning down a FOIA or Community-Right-To-Know Act request for a public document was viable. The only thing I could get him to say was: “There are certain parts that are protected by law from FOIA…”
But even that he didn’t want as an official comment.
What I found most frustrating was I tried calling many different individuals at the AG’s office instead of the press office, and when they asked who I was, I had to identify myself as the press. As soon as I did I was transferred over or told to talk to the press office. The AG’s office does have a FOIA specialist, but as Mr. Frendewey said, he only deals with state agencies since they are the AG’s “clients”. I said wait a minute - aren’t the taxpayers the AG’s clients? He said technically as a whole yes, but as individuals. no. Make of that what you will.
As far as carrying this out, I don’t think that’s been determined yet.