Ann Arbor Officials Seek to Charge The Ann Arbor Independent Over $700 for Public Records Related to the Firing of City Staffer
IN ITS APRIL 3 issue, The Ann Arbor Independent reported on the firing of city staffer Terry Holman shortly after Holman’s partner, Leon Bryson, announced in January 2014 he intended to run for Ann Arbor City Council against incumbent Chuck Warpehoski. Bryson alleged that shortly after he sent a February email to supporters announcing he would not challenge Warpehoski in the Ward 5 race, Holman received an offer of a different job from city officials.
While the facts surrounding the firing remain unclear, the timing of the dismissal and the alleged reasons for the dismissal raise questions.
Terry Holman alleges that in the Fall of 2013 his supervisor, Craig Hupy, began asking why Holman was attending City Council meetings. In October 2012 Hupy, a 26-year city employee, was promoted to serve as the city’s Public Services Administrator with a salary of $127,000 per year. After allegedly incorrectly answering one question on a 4-question test, Holman says he was summarily fired and immediately escorted out of City Hall.
The Ann Arbor Independent filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents relating to Holman’s employment with the city. The newspaper requested Craig Hupy’s personnel file, Terry Holman’s personnel file and emails sent by and to Hupy from any email address which mentioned Leon Bryson, Terry Holman and/or Chuck Warpehoski.
One of the three response letters sent regarding the two public records requests submitted by the newspaper appears below.
The Michigan FOIA statute allows municipalities to charge the rate of the lowest paid employee capable of doing the work. Fees may be waived, and news gathering organizations are frequently provided public records without charge.
In fact, over the five months during which The Ann Arbor Independent has requested public records from the City of Ann Arbor, this is the first time officials have attempted to impose fees.
A request for the fees to be broken down, revealed that city officials are attempting to claim the lowest paid employee capable of retrieving and copying the records earns $170,000 per year.
The following calculations were provided for each of the two FOIA requests:
FOIA 14-117
3.5 hours X 84.84 = 296.94 – fully loaded rate for Nancy Niemela
500 copies x .05 = 25.00
FOIA 14-127
3 hours x 95.11 = 285.33 – fully loaded rate for Craig Hupy
1 hour x 84.84 = 84.84 – fully loaded rate for Nancy Niemela
300 copies x .05 = 15.00
The fully loaded rate indicates that not only do city officials want to charge for the staff members’ salary, but also for the two individuals’ benefits. Nancy Niemela is a city attorney and city officials want The Indy to pay to have Niemela review all of the public records prior to their release.
In addition, city officials have asked Craig Hupy, who is alleged to have unfairly fired Terry Holman, to search his own emails. Officials expect The Indy to pay for 3.5 hours of Mr. Hupy’s time spent “searching” his email inbox and then to pay for one hour of a city attorney’s time to review the emails Mr. Hupy may find.
Even though city policy calls for the first hour of time spent producing public records to be free of charge, the FOIA fee breakdown does not indicate that the first hour of work will be provided at no charge.
Failure to adhere to FOIA statutes along with attempts to charge exceedingly high fees are common tactics adopted when a government entity wishes to keep from turning over records. The newspaper submitted an appeal to the City Administrator to have all fees waived. Steve Powers has 10 business days to respond. Should no response be provided, The Indy can file a lawsuit.