NoDAPL (Cass County)
| Submitted | July 24, 2017 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Curtis Waltman
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to North Dakota Constitution, Article XI, Section 6, and the North Dakota Open Records Statute, N.D.C.C. § 44-04-18(1), I hereby request the following records:
For the following portions of my request, all searches should have a date range of 8/1/16 to the date this request is processed on.
-Emails to and from anyone from the National Sheriffs' Association, which has an email domain of @sheriffs.org
-Emails to and from Mark@otrstrategies.com
-Emails to and from anyone with an email domain of @delvedc.com
-after action reports from any NoDAPL related actions
As a member of the media, I would ask that I be classified as a media requester.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I would request your response within ten (10) business days.
Sincerely,
Curtis Waltman
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 24, 2017. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Burris, Mitch
Mr. Curtis Waltman,
Thanks for your patience. We have finished identifying the responsive documents and have calculated a cost estimate for the request.
There were 11,141 potential documents which were responsive to your request.
The Sheriff's Office has estimated that it will take 5 minutes per document to review and redact. That adds up to 928 hours of staff time. At the statutory rate of $25.00 per hour the estimated cost for the time spent by CCSO staff is $23,200.00.
The IT department has estimated that it will take 8 hours of IT staff time to process the request. At the statutory rate of $25.00, the estimated cost for IT staff time is $200.00.
The total estimated cost for complying with this request is $23,400.00 Once we receive payment we will begin processing the request. We estimate that it will take approximately 120 days to review the documents and make the necessary redactions.
If this is how you would like to proceed, we will keep track of our time and bill against the amount deposited. If the work proceeds more promptly than we have estimated, we will return the balance of the deposited funds.
Please direct me as to how you would like to proceed. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best Regards,
Captain Mitch Burris
Cass County Sheriff's Office
Fargo, ND 58102
From: Curtis Waltman
Hello Mr. Burris,
Obviously, 23K is not exactly in my budget. I would like to know where most of the responsive emails are coming from, and whether most are spam or whether they are real communications. I am betting from experience that most are National Sheriffs' Association emails, but I would like to be sure before I start thinking of ways to cut down this price tag. If you are available, I would very much like to speak to you by phone as well. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Curtis Waltman
From: Curtis Waltman
Captain Burris,
The more I think about this, the more I want to simply cut out the National Sheriffs' Association from the request as well as the part for after action reports-as I understand with the pending legal cases they would be exempt anyway.
That leaves just the mark@otrstrategies.com and @delvedc.com portions of the request. Could you get back to me with a cost estimate for that? Thank you so much for your help.
Sincerely,
Curtis Waltman
From: Burris, Mitch
Mr. Waltman
Thank you for your response. I have meetings today and will be out of the office after today until August 28. I will work on the request with the IT department today. I’m not sure I can complete your request today but I will do my best.
Sincerely,
Captain Mitch Burris
-
~WRD000
From: Burris, Mitch
Mr. Curtis Waltman, August 31,2017
Thanks for your patience. We have finished identifying the responsive documents and have calculated a cost estimate for the request.
There were 9,048 potential documents which were responsive to your request.
The Sheriff's Office has estimated that it will take 5 minutes per document to review and redact. That adds up to 754 hours of staff time. At the statutory rate of $25.00 per hour the estimated cost for the time spent by CCSO staff is $18,8500.00.
The IT department has estimated that it will take 8 hours of IT staff time to process the request. At the statutory rate of $25.00, the estimated cost for IT staff time is $200.00.
The total estimated cost for complying with this request is $19,050.00 Once we receive payment we will begin processing the request. We estimate that it will take approximately 100 days to review the documents and make the necessary redactions.
If this is how you would like to proceed, we will keep track of our time and bill against the amount deposited. If the work proceeds more promptly than we have estimated, we will return the balance of the deposited funds.
Please direct me as to how you would like to proceed. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best Regards,
Captain Mitch Burris
Cass County Sheriff's Office
Fargo, ND 58102
From: Burris, Mitch
Mr. Curtis Waltman,
I received another open records request from you today September 6. The email today is in reference to emails you sent on August 3 and August 18. I sent you a response on August 31. I attached the response again below. I have been waiting to hear how you would like to move forward. The initial estimate was $23,400.00. You changed your request and the estimate for the updated request is below. The estimate for your request is now $19,050.00 and I'm estimating it will take one hundred days to complete. Once I receive your payment I will begin processing your request. Please direct me as to how you would like to proceed. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. If I do not hear from you within the next ten (10) days from today's date, I will consider your request withdrawn and take no further action.
Best Regards,
Captain Mitch Burris
From: Curtis Waltman
Hi Captain Burris,
Is there anyway you could let me know how many of those emails are duplicates or newsletters? Still brainstorming how to bring this cost down. Will be in touch.
Sincerely,
Curtis Waltman
From: Burris, Mitch
Mr. Waltman,
I’m sorry for the delay in answering your question. I have spoken with a representative from information services (IT). I have been told that the only way to know what the documents are or if there are duplicates is to independently go through the documents one at a time. I would like to provide an estimate for the work however I can no longer do this for free. This will include the time it will take to put together the estimate. The IT department and the Sheriff’s Office have each surpassed the first hour of research for your request. I will need to start charging the statutory rate of $25.00 per hour. Please direct me as to how you would like to proceed.
Captain Mitch Burris
-
~WRD000
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