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Rights & Responsibilities:
The Rights of Requesters and
the Responsibilities of the Department of General Services
under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act
The Virginia Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA), located § 2.2-3700 et. seq. of the Code
of Virginia, guarantees citizens of the Commonwealth and
representatives of the media access to public records held by
public bodies, public officials, and public employees.
A public
record is any writing or recording -- regardless of whether it
is a paper record, an electronic file, an audio or video
recording, or any other format -- that is prepared or owned by,
or in the possession of a public body or its officers, employees
or agents in the transaction of public business. All public
records are presumed to be open, and may only be withheld if a
specific, statutory exemption applies.
The policy of FOIA states that
the purpose of FOIA is to promote an increased awareness by all
persons of governmental activities. In furthering this policy,
FOIA requires that the law be interpreted liberally, in favor of
access, and that any exemption allowing public records to be
withheld must be interpreted narrowly.
Your
FOIA Rights
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You have the right to request to inspect or receive
copies of public records, or both.
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You have the right to request that any charges for the
requested records be estimated in advance.
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If you believe that your FOIA rights have been violated, you
may file a petition in district or circuit court to compel
compliance with FOIA.
Making
a Request for records from the Department Of General Services
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You may request records by U.S. Mail, fax, e-mail, in
person, or over the phone. FOIA does not require that your
request be in writing, nor do you need to specifically state
that you are requesting records under FOIA.
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From a practical perspective, it may be helpful to both
you and the person receiving your request to put your
request in writing. This allows you to create a record
of your request. It also gives us a clear statement of
what records you are requesting, so that there is no
misunderstanding over a verbal request. However, we
cannot refuse to respond to your FOIA request if you
elect to not put it in writing.
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Your request must identify the records you are seeking with
"reasonable specificity." This is a common-sense standard.
It does not refer to or limit the volume or number of
records that you are requesting; instead, it requires that
you be specific enough so that we can identify and locate
the records that you are seeking.
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Your request must ask for existing records or documents.
FOIA gives you a right to inspect or copy records; it
does not apply to a situation where you are asking general
questions about the work of the Department of General
Services, nor does it require the Department of General
Services to create a record that does not exist.
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You may choose to receive electronic records in any format
used by the Department of General Services in the regular
course of business.
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For example, if you are requesting records maintained in
an Excel database, you may elect to receive those
records electronically, via e-mail or on a computer
disk, or to receive a printed copy of those records
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If we have questions about your request, please cooperate
with staff's efforts to clarify the type of records that you
are seeking, or to attempt to reach a reasonable agreement
about a response to a large request. Making a FOIA request
is not an adversarial process, but we may need to discuss
your request with you to ensure that we understand what
records you are seeking.
To
request records from the Department of General Services, you may
direct your request to Margaret Ward. She can be reached at
Mail: Management Audit and Review Services, Department of
General Services, 209 North Ninth Street Suite 203, Richmond
Virginia 23219, Phone: 804-786-3261, eMail: mward@dgs.state.va.us.
You may also contact her with questions you have concerning
requesting records from the Department of General Services. In
addition, the Freedom of Information Advisory Council is
available to answer any questions you may have about FOIA. The
Council may be contacted by e-mail at foiacouncil@leg.state.va.us,
or by phone at (804) 225-3056 or [toll free] 1-866-448-4100.
The
Department of General Services' Responsibilities in Responding
to Your Request
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The Department of General Services must respond to your
request within five working days of receiving it. "Day One"
is considered the day after your request is received. The
five-day period does not include weekends or holidays.
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The reason behind your request for public records from the
Department of General Services is irrelevant, and we cannot
ask you why you want the records before we respond to your
request. FOIA does, however, allow the Department of
General Services to ask you to provide your name and legal
address.
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FOIA requires that the Department of General Services make
one of the following responses to your request within the
five-day time period:
1) We
provide you with the records that you have requested in their
entirety.
2) We
withhold all of the records that you have requested, because all
of the records are subject to a specific statutory exemption.
If all of the records are being withheld, we must send you a
response in writing. That writing must identify the volume and
subject matter of the records being withheld, and state the
specific section of the Code of Virginia that allows us to
withhold the records.
3) We
provide some of the records that you have requested, but
withhold other records. We cannot withhold an entire record if
only a portion of it is subject to an exemption. In that
instance, we may redact the portion of the record that may be
withheld, and must provide you with the remainder of the
record. We must provide you with a written response stating the
specific section of the Code of Virginia that allows portions of
the requested records to be withheld.
4) If
it is practically impossible for the Department of General
Services to respond to your request within the five-day period,
we must state this in writing, explaining the conditions that
make the response impossible. This will allow us seven
additional working days to respond to your request, giving us a
total of 12 working days to respond to your request.
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If you make a request for a very large number of records,
and we feel that we cannot provide the records to you within
12 days without disrupting our other organizational
responsibilities, we may petition the court for additional
time to respond to your request. However, FOIA requires
that we make a reasonable effort to reach an agreement with
you concerning the production or the records before we go to
court to ask for more time.
Costs
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You may have to pay for the records that you request from
the Department of General Services. FOIA allows us to
charge for the actual costs of responding to FOIA requests.
This would include items like staff time spent searching for
the requested records, copying costs, or any other costs
directly related to supplying the requested records. It
cannot include general overhead costs.
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If we estimate that it will cost more than $200 to respond
to your request, we may require you to pay a deposit, not to
exceed the amount of the estimate, before proceeding with
your request. The five days that we have to respond to your
request does not include the time between when we ask for a
deposit and when you respond.
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You may request that we estimate in advance the charges for
supplying the records that you have requested. This will
allow you to know about any costs upfront, or give you the
opportunity to modify your request in an attempt to lower
the estimated costs.
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If you owe us money from a previous FOIA request that has
remained unpaid for more than 30 days, the Department of
General Services may require payment of the past-due bill
before it will respond to your new FOIA request.
Commonly used exemptions
The Code of
Virginia allows any public body to withhold certain records from
public disclosure. the Department of General Services commonly
withholds records subject to the following exemptions:
· Personnel
records (§ 2.2-3705.1 (1) of the Code of Virginia)
· Records
subject to attorney-client privilege (§ 2.2-3705.1 (2)) or
attorney work product (§ 2.2-3705.1 (3))
· Vendor
proprietary information (§ 2.2-3705.1 (6))
· Records
relating to the negotiation and award of a contract, prior to a
contract being awarded (§ 2.2-3705.1 (12))
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