Emails containing MALETA , Multi Agency Law Enforcement Training Academy or Cockrill Bend

Thank you for your submission.
The Department of General Services confirms the submission of your
public records request.
For more detailed information, please see our rules concerning
requests to view public records.

Hello Mr. Hoover,

We received a total of 11 public records requests from you over the course of last week, all related to the MALETA project our STREAM division is overseeing. This includes requests for MALETA-related emails for Tammy Robbins, Peter Heimbach, Penny DiPiazza, John Hull, Gwen Sanders, Commissioner Christi Branscom, and Brian Hendrickson. It also includes emails from Anecdote Architectural Experience and various records for seven different vendors who are working on the project, plus proposals related to this project. (Not the full list.)

Based on the nature of the requests and the number of records this would entail, the Communications Office has opted to aggregate all these requests into one response. This is covered under the DGS Public Records Request Rules<https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/generalservices/documents/DGS_Public_Records_Rules.pdf>, which reads:

0690-06-02-.07 AGGREGATION OF FREQUENT AND MULTIPLE REQUESTS. (1) The Department will aggregate record requests in accordance with the Reasonable Charges for Frequent and Multiple Requests promulgated by the OORC when more than four (4) requests are received within a calendar month either from a single individual or a group of individuals deemed to be working in concert. Records requests will be aggregated at the Department level.

After consulting with all the individuals named in your requests, along with those requests that were not specific to a person, our legal team has determined your requests would require over 160+ hours. This includes the time involved in collecting the records, as well as the time necessary to review records and make necessary redactions. Based on the "Schedule of Reasonable Charges<https://comptroller.tn.gov/content/dam/cot/orc/documents/oorc/policies-and-guidelines/ScheduleofReasonableCharges.pdf>" issued by the State of Tennessee, Comptroller of the Treasury, Office of Open Records Counsel, the cost for these records is $9,409.81. This includes the deduction of two hours, which is how much time DGS offers at no charge.

If you'd like to move forward with your existing request, we would need written confirmation of your agreement to the cost. Following your confirmation, we would send you an invoice. Once we receive your payment, then we could proceed with collecting and reviewing these records.

While I stated that it would take over 160 hours, these would not be consecutive hours, but since it involves numerous people, I would want to go back to the team and determine how long this would take should you decide to move forward with these requests.

If you'd like to adjust your request, we can cancel these requests, and you may submit another request with a more narrow scope.

Please let me know how you'd like to proceed.

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Michelle Sanders Parks | Director of Communications
Tennessee Tower, 22nd Floor
312 Rosa L. Parks Ave., Nashville, TN 37243
p. 615-532-2527 c. 615-613-4502
michelle.parks@tn.gov
tn.gov/generalservices/<http://www.tn.gov/generalserv>

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To Whom It May Concern,

I'm attaching a copy of the letter I emailed and mailed to MuckRock and Kent Hoover that clearly states that if you are not moving forward with the initial request, we received over 14+ emails, and we aggregated into one request, which would need to be confirmed by email, along with receipt of payment, then after 30 days, we will cancel that request.

If you would like to request metadata instead, this would need to be a new request.

Here's the contents of the letter:

++++++
November 1, 2023

Kent Hoover

Re: Multiple requests from Kent Hoover via MuckRock

To Whom It May Concern

I am writing about the multiple public record requests we received from Kent Hoover via the MuckRock platform related to the MALETA project. (See attached spreadsheet consolidating all the requests we received from Kent Hoover.)

Upon receiving these 14 different requests, we determined it would be best to aggregate these requests into one response since all the requests are related. I made multiple efforts to reach Kent Hoover, using two of the unique emails that were listed with a couple of the requests to explain this and provide an estimate on the time and fees associated with his request. It is our policy that we do not gather records in a circumstance like this without approval of the costs and receipt of payment. Absent a response approving the over 160 hours of work associated with the request, coming in at a cost of $9,409.81, and said payment, DGS will hold these aggregated requests for 30 days before canceling it.

I also forwarded my emails to the general MuckRock email address. (See attached documentation.)

On Tuesday, October 24, our office received a response from someone named M Sostre with MuckRock, requesting the metadata of these emails, as opposed to the entire file.

According to the Tennessee Public Records Act, the State may provide public records to Tennessee citizens. There is no way to authenticate this via email.

Therefore, to request the metadata of the same emails, it would need to be submitted as a new request by someone who has a valid Tennessee ID.

I will also note that if a second request was submitted for the metadata of these same records, it would be around 60+ hours of time and cost roughly $3,500 for those files. Again, the State would not move forward to gathering any records until we received confirmation of the time and costs and receipt of payment.

As I previously stated, without authorization and payment, the Department of General Services will cancel the previous requests submitted if we do not receive a response or payment in the next 30 days.

Also, if someone wants to pursue a similar request, it would need to be a new request submitted online through our portal at https://www.tn.gov/generalservices/about-dgs/public-records-requests.html and would again need to be requested by someone with a Tennessee residence with proof of ID.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. I’ve included my contact information below.

Sincerely,

Michelle Sanders Parks | Director of Communications
Tennessee Tower, 22nd Floor
312 Rosa L. Parks Ave., Nashville, TN 37243
p. 615-532-2527 c. 615-613-4502
michelle.parks@tn.gov
tn.gov/generalservices/

Enclosures (2)