UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustee Phone Logs

Clayton D. Somers
Assistant Secretary, Board of Trustees & Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs and Secretary of the University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
clayton@unc.edu

June 18, 2021

Dear Mr. Somers,

Under the North Carolina Public Records Law, G.S. §132-1, we are requesting access to or copies of the following:

All phone log or pen register/ dialed number records that exist in any form-- electronic or hard copy/paper-- for the following individuals from June 1, 2020 to the present.
* BOT member Richard Y. Stevens
* BOT member R. Gene Davis Jr.
* BOT member Teresa Artis Neal
* BOT member David L. Boliek Jr.
* BOT member Jefferson W. Brown
* BOT member G. Munroe Cobey
* BOT member Haywood D. Cochrane Jr.
* BOT member Charles G. Duckett
* BOT member Kelly Matthews Hopkins
* BOT member Allie Ray McCullen
* BOT member Ralph W. Meekins Sr.
* BOT member John P. Preyer
* BOT Ex-Officio Member Lamar Richards
* Former BOT Ex-Officio Member Reeves Moseley
* BOT Assistant Secretary Clayton D. Somers

By "phone logs" we mean any and all documentary material the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill uses to track and account for use of University-funded phone lines, including the time, date, duration and recipient (or other participant) of calls.

Because North Carolina law specifies requesters can obtain public documents "in any and all media in which the public agency is capable of providing them," please send the information in electronic form, and specifically in Excel (.csv) format where possible. As the law requires, please release all reasonably segregable nonexempt portions of documents.

We request a waiver of all fees for this request because this request is made as part of the process of news gathering and not for commercial use. Disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of government, namely the University of North Carolina.

State law requires that you respond to and fulfill this request "as promptly as possible." If you expect a significant delay of over three working business days in responding to and fulfilling this request, please contact me with information about when we might expect copies or the ability to inspect the requested records. Please provide records as they are processed.

If you deny any or all of this request, please cite each specific statutory exemption you feel justifies the refusal to release the information and notify me of the appeal procedures available to me under the law. If you contend that a responsive record contains confidential personnel information under North Carolina law, please redact the record for the purposes of protecting confidential information and produce the responsive portion of the record.

If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact us at 336-278-5506 or reply to this email address.

Thank you in advance for your facilitation of this request.

Best,

Brooks Fuller, Director, N.C. Open Government Coalition, Elon University

Bill Adair, Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy, Duke University

Shannan Bowen, Executive Director, N.C. Local News Workshop, Elon University

Neal Caren, Associate Professor of Sociology, UNC-Chapel Hill

Paul Cuadros, Associate Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

Victoria Smith Ekstrand, Associate Professor & Caroline H. and Thomas S. Royster Distinguished Professor for Graduate Education, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

Jordan Green, adjunct faculty, Journalism Program, Wake Forest University and staff reporter at Raw Story

Calvin L. Hall, Department Chair & Associate Professor, North Carolina Central University Department of Mass Communication

Pam Kelley, freelance journalist and former higher education reporter, The Charlotte Observer

Daniel Kreiss, Edgar Thomas Cato Distinguished Associate Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media and Principal Researcher, Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life; Faculty Affiliate, Information Society Project at Yale Law School

Mandy Locke, adjunct faculty, Journalism Program, Wake Forest University

Trevy A. McDonald, Julian W. Scheer Term Associate Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

Erin Siegal McIntyre, Assistant Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

Kate Murphy, Higher Education Reporter, The News & Observer

Kate Sheppard, Senior National Editor, HuffPost, and Teaching Associate Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

Melanie Sill, founder, N.C. Local News Lab and former executive editor of The News & Observer

Praveena Somasundaram, Editor-in-Chief, The Daily Tar Heel

David Squires, Adjunct Lecturer, Journalism, N.C. A&T University

Ryan Thornburg, Associate Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

Kyle Villemain, Editor-in-Chief, The Assembly

Barry Yeoman, freelance journalist, Adjunct Instructor of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University and Adjunct Instructor of Journalism, Wake Forest University

Phoebe Zerwick, Director of the Journalism Program, Wake Forest University

Dear Mr. Somers,

We write to follow up on our request for phone logs for the members of the UNC Board of Trustees that we filed with your office on June 18, 2021.

We received two identical responses from the UNC Public Records Office and its associated email account, presumably on your behalf, that read:

“Good morning -- All communications and requests are now being processed at https://nextrequest.unc.edu/ and the Public Records Office e-mail account is no longer being used for requests or monitored on a regular basis. Please submit all requests and correspondence at https://nextrequest.unc.edu/.

Sincerely,
The Public Records Office
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill”

We take this duplicate response to apply to both of our requests we made to your office. Please confirm that is the case and that you do not intend to fulfill our public records request from your university e-mail account.

Additionally, we would appreciate a clarification around your statement that all public records requests must be filed at https://nextrequest.unc.edu.

The reason for our confusion is that your assertion that all public records requests must be filed at https://nextrequest.unc.edu is not grounded in North Carolina law.

This requirement introduces an unnecessary step in the records request process that, in our view, prevents government agencies from producing records "as promptly as possible” (see NCGS §132-6).

In 1999, a superior court in North Carolina found that state law does not permit “the interposition of a ‘gatehouse’ or ‘overseer’ between members of the public who desire access to public records and the custodians of public records.” (Dawes v. Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, 99 CVS 03497)

Although North Carolina law does not require citizens to make public records requests through a public agency’s preferred platform or medium (see NCGS §132-6.2(a)), we're happy to follow this process for the sake of expediently receiving the records.

So that we understand what will happen to our request after we submit it via the UNC NextRequest portal, would you be willing to describe to us your process for fulfilling this request after it appears in the portal system?

Also, we want to confirm that you are the custodian of the records we seek in this request. N.C. General Statute 132-2 defines the custodian of a public record as “the public official in charge of an office having public records.” If your office does have the documents we’re requesting then you would be a custodian responsible for producing these records for public inspection.

If you are not the custodian of the requested records, please supply the name and email address of the appropriate custodian.

Thank you again for helping us understand your response.

(This request is being redirected through the portal)

Clayton D. Somers
Assistant Secretary, Board of Trustees & Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs and Secretary of the University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
clayton@unc.edu

June 18, 2021

Dear Mr. Somers,

Under the North Carolina Public Records Law, G.S. §132-1, we are requesting access to or copies of the following:

All phone log or pen register/ dialed number records that exist in any form-- electronic or hard copy/paper-- for the following individuals from June 1, 2020 to the present.
* BOT member Richard Y. Stevens
* BOT member R. Gene Davis Jr.
* BOT member Teresa Artis Neal
* BOT member David L. Boliek Jr.
* BOT member Jefferson W. Brown
* BOT member G. Munroe Cobey
* BOT member Haywood D. Cochrane Jr.
* BOT member Charles G. Duckett
* BOT member Kelly Matthews Hopkins
* BOT member Allie Ray McCullen
* BOT member Ralph W. Meekins Sr.
* BOT member John P. Preyer
* BOT Ex-Officio Member Lamar Richards
* Former BOT Ex-Officio Member Reeves Moseley
* BOT Assistant Secretary Clayton D. Somers

By "phone logs" we mean any and all documentary material the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill uses to track and account for use of University-funded phone lines, including the time, date, duration and recipient (or other participant) of calls.

Because North Carolina law specifies requesters can obtain public documents "in any and all media in which the public agency is capable of providing them," please send the information in electronic form, and specifically in Excel (.csv) format where possible. As the law requires, please release all reasonably segregable nonexempt portions of documents.

We request a waiver of all fees for this request because this request is made as part of the process of news gathering and not for commercial use. Disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of government, namely the University of North Carolina.

State law requires that you respond to and fulfill this request "as promptly as possible." If you expect a significant delay of over three working business days in responding to and fulfilling this request, please contact me with information about when we might expect copies or the ability to inspect the requested records. Please provide records as they are processed.

If you deny any or all of this request, please cite each specific statutory exemption you feel justifies the refusal to release the information and notify me of the appeal procedures available to me under the law. If you contend that a responsive record contains confidential personnel information under North Carolina law, please redact the record for the purposes of protecting confidential information and produce the responsive portion of the record.

If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact us at 336-278-5506 or reply to this email address.

Thank you in advance for your facilitation of this request.

Best,

Brooks Fuller, Director, N.C. Open Government Coalition, Elon University

Bill Adair, Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy, Duke University

Shannan Bowen, Executive Director, N.C. Local News Workshop, Elon University

Neal Caren, Associate Professor of Sociology, UNC-Chapel Hill

Paul Cuadros, Associate Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

Victoria Smith Ekstrand, Associate Professor & Caroline H. and Thomas S. Royster Distinguished Professor for Graduate Education, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

Jordan Green, adjunct faculty, Journalism Program, Wake Forest University and staff reporter at Raw Story

Calvin L. Hall, Department Chair & Associate Professor, North Carolina Central University Department of Mass Communication

Pam Kelley, freelance journalist and former higher education reporter, The Charlotte Observer

Daniel Kreiss, Edgar Thomas Cato Distinguished Associate Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media and Principal Researcher, Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life; Faculty Affiliate, Information Society Project at Yale Law School

Mandy Locke, adjunct faculty, Journalism Program, Wake Forest University

Trevy A. McDonald, Julian W. Scheer Term Associate Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

Erin Siegal McIntyre, Assistant Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

Kate Murphy, Higher Education Reporter, The News & Observer

Kate Sheppard, Senior National Editor, HuffPost, and Teaching Associate Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

Melanie Sill, founder, N.C. Local News Lab and former executive editor of The News & Observer

Praveena Somasundaram, Editor-in-Chief, The Daily Tar Heel

David Squires, Adjunct Lecturer, Journalism, N.C. A&T University

Ryan Thornburg, Associate Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

Kyle Villemain, Editor-in-Chief, The Assembly

Barry Yeoman, freelance journalist, Adjunct Instructor of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University and Adjunct Instructor of Journalism, Wake Forest University

Phoebe Zerwick, Director of the Journalism Program, Wake Forest University