Justine Parks Substation (Anchorage Finance Department)

Hello,

We are in receipt of your email dated 9/15/2020 requesting municipal records relating to the Justine Parks Substation that you sent via the third-party site Muckrock.com. Since the original request was sent to a general Municipal finance inbox unrelated to Municipal work involving the Justine Parks Substation or public records requests, it did not immediately reach the correct Department.

Under Anchorage Municipal Code (AMC) we are able to provide you with the requested documents within two days of a request. If we are unable to do so we are to make further inquiry of you as to whether you still wish to have the documents. If you do still want to records, and assuming those records exist, we will provide them within a reasonable amount of time consistent with the orderly conduct of municipal business:

3.90.060 Response to requests for public records.
All municipal officers and employees shall, consistent with the orderly conduct of municipal business, make a good faith and diligent effort to provide a rapid and intelligible response to requests for inspection of records made pursuant to this chapter.

AMC 3.90.060C. All requests for records and information made pursuant to this chapter shall be responded to within a reasonable time period. If the records and information cannot be located in time to make a response within two working days of the request, the requesting party shall be promptly advised, and, if the requesting party still desires the information or records, a reasonable and diligent search shall be made for it.

This is to advise you that we cannot provide the requested documents within two days, but we will provide the documents in a reasonable amount of time, provided:

1. You advise us that you still want them;
2. They exist; and
3. That you are willing to pay in advance for the search and retrieval of the records and any associated costs such as photocopies or CDs based upon the estimate we send you. Under our code we can charge up to $40 per hour for search for, retrieve and redact the requested records. Additionally, photocopies (if needed) are $0.30 per page.
AMC 3.90.050 Departmental regulation of time, place and manner of inspection of records.
The mayor shall, pursuant to Chapter 3.40, adopt municipal regulations for each municipal department as to the time, place and manner of inspection of public records held by the municipality. Such regulations may also provide:

A. That a fee may be required. The fee shall not exceed the actual cost to the agency. No fee shall be charged when a person simply requests access to the information, however employee time may be charged when the nature of the information requires custodial observation of the access. If the person is unable to pay any requested fee, and signs an affidavit to the effect he is indigent, there will be no cost to such person.
AMCR 3.90.005 Record retrieval charges.
In addition to the fee for copying a record, a municipal agency may charge a fee for employee time to search for, retrieve, and redact as necessary, the record at a rate not exceeding $40.00 per hour.

As noted above, we cannot provide with the documents in two days. As such, at this point we need to know whether you still want the records and are willing to pay, in advance, the costs associated with the search, retrieval and redaction of the documents. If so, please provide a detailed explanation of the records you are requesting, and we will provide a cost estimate and timeline for providing the requested records.

Please be aware that should you decide to pay for the "search, retrieval and redaction" of documents based on the estimate provided, you may not receive copies of all of the documents we find that are relevant to your request. Some of the documents may be legally exempt from production under our public records ordinance. Until we have performed the search and examined the documents we will not know if any exemptions apply.

Thank you,

Collin Hodges
Senior Planner
Planning Department
Municipality of Anchorage
907-343-7938
collin.hodges@anchorageak.gov<mailto:collin.hodges@anchorageak.gov>