Expenditures relating to visits from federal officials (Vermont State Police)
| Multi Request | Expenditures relating to visits from federal officials |
| Submitted | Sept. 17, 2019 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Emma North-Best
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Vermont Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
Records describing, authorizing or mentioning expenses or personnel assignments in response to or accommodation of visits from officials in the federal government between January 1, 2001 and the present.
I am a member of the news media and request classification as such. I have previously written about the government and its activities, with some reaching over 100,000 readers in outlets such as Gizmodo, MuckRock, Motherboard, Property of the People, Unicorn Riot, and The Outline, among others. As such, as I have a reasonable expectation of publication and my editorial and writing skills are well established. In addition, I discuss and comment on the files online and make them available through non-profits such as the library Internet Archive and the journalist non-profit MuckRock, disseminating them to a large audience. While my research is not limited to this, a great deal of it, including this, focuses on the activities and attitudes of the government itself. As such, it is not necessary for me to demonstrate the relevance of this particular subject in advance.
As my primary purpose is to inform about government activities by reporting on it and making the raw data available, I request that fees be waived.
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 look forward to receiving your response to this request within 3 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Emma Best
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Vermont Public Records Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 17, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Vermont State Police
Emma Best
Via Email: requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>
Dear Ms. Best,
I am writing in response to your public records request, received September 17, 2019 and addressed to the Vermont State Police, for "[r]ecords describing, authorizing or mentioning expenses or personnel assignments in response to or accommodation of visits from officials in the federal government between January 1, 2001 and the present."
You have requested a voluminous amount of records that will take substantially longer than three to ten business days to compile, review and properly redact in accordance with Vermont's Public Records Act ("PRA"). In order to deal with circumstances such as these, the PRA permits a public agency to ask the requester to narrow the scope of the public records request. See 1 V.S.A. § 318(d). To expedite a response your request, we invite you to narrow your request by reducing the date range, specifying particular types of records you would like, and/or specifying the particular visits of federal officials in which you are interested.
The PRA also states that "an agency may ...charge and collect the cost of staff time associated with complying with a request for a copy of a public record...the time directly involved in complying with the request [that] exceeds 30 minutes." See 1 V.S.A. § 316(c). The Uniform Fee Schedule for calculating costs, found on the Vermont Secretary of State's website, establishes that after the first 30 minutes involved in physically duplicating a public record, $.33 per minute may be charged for staff time to provide such records. See 1 V.S.A. § 316(d) and the Uniform Fee Schedule at: https://www.sec.state.vt.us/archives-records/certifications-fees/uniform-fee-schedule.aspx. It is the policy of the Department of Public Safety to charge for staff time to produce public records after the first two hours. Please be aware that if DPS staff must spend over two hours responding to your request, charges will be incurred.
Once you have notified us if you would like to narrow your request, or proceed with it as originally submitted, we will notify you of the estimated time and cost to complete our response, so that you may decide if you would like to proceed, narrow the request further, or withdraw it.
If you have any questions please contact me.
Sincerely,
Ms. Grier D. Martin
Public Records Request Specialist
Vermont Department of Public Safety
45 State Drive
Waterbury, VT 05671
Phone: (802) 241-5378
Email: Grier.Martin@vermont.gov<mailto:Grier.Martin@vermont.gov>
The information transmitted by the following e-mail is intended only for the addressee and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this email message is strictly prohibited. If you received this communication in error, please contact us immediately at 802-244-8727 and delete this email from your computer or network system. Thank you.
From: Emma North-Best
Would it be helpful if I narrowed the request by limiting it visitors from specific agencies? I'd like to accommodate, but want to make sure it's in a way that is useful/helpful to your office.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Vermont Public Records Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 17, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Vermont Public Records Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 17, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Vermont Public Records Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 17, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Vermont State Police
Hello Ms. Best,
Please see below my email of September 25, 2019. The only way that the Vermont Department of Public Safety can realistically search for records regarding the expenses of visits by federal officials is by the name of the specific visiting official, not by the name of their agency.
Please let me know if you would like us to search for expenses connected to the visits of specific federal officials.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Ms. Grier D. Martin
Public Records Request Specialist
Vermont Department of Public Safety
45 State Drive
Waterbury, VT 05671
Phone: (802) 241-5378
Email: Grier.Martin@vermont.gov<mailto:Grier.Martin@vermont.gov>
The information transmitted by the following e-mail is intended only for the addressee and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this email message is strictly prohibited. If you received this communication in error, please contact us immediately at 802-244-8727 and delete this email from your computer or network system. Thank you.
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From: Vermont State Police
Hello Ms. Best,
Please see below my email of September 25, 2019. The only way that the Vermont Department of Public Safety can realistically search for records regarding the expenses of visits by federal officials is by the name of the specific visiting official, not by the name of their agency.
Please let me know if you would like us to search for expenses connected to the visits of specific federal officials.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Ms. Grier D. Martin
Public Records Request Specialist
Vermont Department of Public Safety
45 State Drive
Waterbury, VT 05671
Phone: (802) 241-5378
Email: Grier.Martin@vermont.gov<mailto:Grier.Martin@vermont.gov>
The information transmitted by the following e-mail is intended only for the addressee and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this email message is strictly prohibited. If you received this communication in error, please contact us immediately at 802-244-8727 and delete this email from your computer or network system. Thank you.
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