EDITORIAL: Ann Arbor District Library and FOIA

THE ANN ARBOR Independent is committed to in-depth reporting on local news as well as accountability journalism. This means the newspaper relies on the Freedom of Information Act to request public records. Over the past four months, the newspaper has used FOIA to request documents from AAATA, the City of Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, the Ann Arbor Public Schools and the Ann Arbor District Library, among others. As a result of public records turned over by the AADL, in the editorial pages of this newspaper we called for the resignation of one of the AADL’s elected trustees. That trustee’s email message following a January 2011 drug overdose showed that she was made aware of drug sales in the Downtown library, and was most concerned about whether the public would find out about the criminal activity—the public was not made aware until 36 months later.

Since then, The Indy has used FOIA to secure other public records related to the revelation of the sale of heroin and the use of the Downtown library as a cocaine drop location. The Library’s Executive Director Josie Parker has not only been scrupulous in her adherence to Michigan’s FOIA statute, the AADL’s response to each of the newspaper’s public records requests has been extraordinarily speedy. The AADL has waived all fees because the information is being shared with the public and the public records returned have been exceedingly well-organized.

We applaud the AADL, its Executive Director as well as the Board of Trustees for turning over public records so readily when it is clear that the information in those public records documents decisions of elected officials for which we believe the public should demand a swift reckoning.

The AADL five-branch system is an asset to our community of which citizens are justifiably proud. The AADL staff and Board of Trustees who have led our library system through a Great Recession, a digital revolution now face a changing political landscape in our own city. As a March 18 story in The Indy revealed, more than two-thirds of Americans are engaged with public libraries. The Pew Research Study also revealed that people who have never visited a library value libraries’ roles in their community.

The same can be said for the AADL’s response to this newspaper’s multiple requests for public records. While very few in our community will ever use FOIA to get access to public records from the AADL, our community should be pleased with the AADL’s response to this newspaper’s FOIA requests.

It recently took 65 days, multiple FOIA requests and an appeal for the AAPS to turn over 67 pages of public records. The AADL turned over 1,307 pages of public records in five days.