Email query records request

Hi Mr. Nash - I responded to this request. I will find my original response and forward it to the requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com> email.

Melissa Demmitt
Public Relations Director
Town of Christiansburg
(540) 382-6128 ext. 1150
Follow us: Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/CburgVAGov/> & Twitter<https://twitter.com/CburgVA_Gov>

From: Melissa Demmitt
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2020 8:50 AM
To: requests@muckrock.com
Subject: RE: Virginia Freedom of Information Act Request: Untitled

Hi Mr. Nash,

Please see the attached response to your FOIA request for correspondence involving mockingbirdcafebakery@gmail.com<mailto:mockingbirdcafebakery@gmail.com> or containing Donna Speaks in the subject or body. The attached letter has a link to the Box account where the emails have been uploaded.

Thank you,

Melissa Demmitt
Public Relations Director
Town of Christiansburg
(540) 382-6128 ext. 1150
Follow us: Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/CburgVAGov/> & Twitter<https://twitter.com/CburgVA_Gov>

From: requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com> <requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>>
Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2020 8:53 PM
To: Melissa Demmitt <mdemmitt@christiansburg.org<mailto:mdemmitt@christiansburg.org>>
Subject: RE: Virginia Freedom of Information Act Request: Untitled

Town of Christiansburg
FOIA Office
100 E. Main St.
Christiansburg, VA 24073

April 8, 2020

This is a follow up to a previous request:

Hi Melissa,

Thank you for looking further into this request.

I would like to receive the 218 emails you mentioned just as a start, and that will allow me to get a better understanding of the data we're working with to hopefully make life easier for the both of us. If you could knock that out while we iron out the rest, that'd be great.

Regarding the remaining emails, I'm hoping to avoid filtering anything out as it leaves some discretion involved and I'm really looking for anything and everything that would be in the public interest, so it really is in the interest of the public to be able to make those decisions themselves. When it comes to the "Town Council" email thread, wouldn't those emails, and especially those that are in chains with duplicates, need not be reviewed? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like those would be particularly open to the public and as such could be left out of the very large amount of hours you quoted me for.

Have a great day!

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>
Upload documents directly: https://accounts.muckrock.com/accounts/login/?url_auth_token=AAAuuZddVSt10pelYXLUjmKSLCE%3A1jMLQv%3A3siUMsVWSOJj1kBEWsnXEKX5DUI&next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.muckrock.com%2Faccounts%2Flogin%2F%3Fnext%3D%252Faccounts%252Fagency_login%252Ftown-of-christiansburg-10623%252Funtitled-91235%252F%253Femail%253Dmdemmitt%252540christiansburg.org
Is this email coming to the wrong contact? Something else wrong? Use the above link to let us know.

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 91235
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.

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On April 7, 2020:
Subject: RE: Virginia Freedom of Information Act Request: Untitled
Hi Mr. Nash,

Our Finance Department is helping me with your first request, and I will hopefully have that over to you by tomorrow.

In regards to the below, narrowing the search from 1/1/19 to 4/1/20 reduces the potentially responsive documents to 7,414 emails. I did a quick scan of the first couple of pages on our Archiver system, and just based on the subject line and to/from information, only a handful of emails appeared to be spam.

I separated out the request a bit more, and between those specified dates, there are only 218 emails that are from/to/cc the Mockingbird email and/or contain Donna Speaks in the subject/body (without quotes, some may just contain Donna or Speaks and are potentially not responsive, but I'd have to read through to check). Would you like me to proceed with that portion of the request? There would be no charge, and I can provide the responsive emails via a Box link, if that works for you.

For the remaining emails to/from/cc or mentioning Merissa Sachs, there are so many because she is included on the Town Council email thread, in addition to the emails she personally sends or receives, or is mentioned in. If there are specific topics you'd like to search for in regards to those emails, that may help narrow it down a bit more.

FOIA requires annual training, and I am the FOIA-trained staff member for the Town of Christiansburg, which is why I would be the individual compiling the documents responsive to this request.

Thank you,

Melissa Demmitt
Public Relations Director
Town of Christiansburg
(540) 382-6128 ext. 1150
Follow us: Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/CburgVAGov/> & Twitter<https://twitter.com/CburgVA_Gov>

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On April 6, 2020:
Subject: RE: Virginia Freedom of Information Act Request: Untitled
Hi Melissa,

Mr. Nash's address is as follows:

[address redacted]

Thank you for your help with this request!

Sincerely,
MuckRock
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On April 6, 2020:
Subject: RE: Virginia Freedom of Information Act Request: Untitled
Hi Melissa,

100 emails per hour seems slower than other requests that have been fulfilled in the past. I understand it's mundane work, but I'd hope you could split up the time to reduce that. Still, the vast majority of emails must be something simple like a one line reply. Not to mention all the spam and junk emails.

As the FOIA officer, I would imagine part of your salary is to fulfill requests like this. Of course it wouldn't make sense if I made a request that required weeks of your time, but I have to ask, is it really necessary to pay someone who makes a massive $70,000 per year salary to perform low level work like this? Someone making half your salary could fulfill this role.

Could you please classify the emails by their content? I.e. X amount are spam, Y amount appear to be legitimate person to person emails, etc.

How many emails return if we narrow the search to those 4 queries from 1/1/2019 until 4/1/2020?

Thank you for your assistance.
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On April 2, 2020:
Subject: RE: Virginia Freedom of Information Act Request: Untitled
Hi Mr. Nash,

As the FOIA officer, I will need to read each of those 14,000+ emails to see if they are responsive to your request and ensure they don't contain any communications that would need to be redacted, i.e. communications regarding personnel, attorney-client privilege, proprietary information, etc.

It's not quite as simple as just pushing export and sending over. My hourly salary is $33.60. I reached the $4,000+ figure by estimating that I could read and review roughly 100 emails an hour, which would be roughly 140 estimated hours. Again, I'm happy to work with you to try to narrow this down or figure out a way to reduce the cost because I do understand that is a large figure.

Thanks,

Melissa Demmitt
Public Relations Director
Town of Christiansburg
(540) 382-6128 ext. 1150
Follow us: Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/CburgVAGov/> & Twitter<https://twitter.com/CburgVA_Gov>
---

On April 2, 2020:
Subject: RE: Virginia Freedom of Information Act Request: Untitled
Please provide an actual breakdown of cost at hourly rates and fees in accordance with FOIA laws. $4,000 sounds well in excess of what it will take to export emails on a computer to a drive or the cloud (which I am happy to provide.)

The legal address will follow shortly.
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On April 1, 2020:
Subject: Virginia Freedom of Information Act Request: Untitled
To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

Any records relating to the filing of expenses under line item code 10-8110-5027 "Printing and Supplies." These may be items such as manuals, documents, guidance, and training. Please include any database fields that include breakdowns and descriptions of each expense.

If the data is in a database where it's easy to export, I'm happy to discuss formats that are easy for you to collect and disseminate. Text documents, word files, excel files, and comma seperated values (.csv) are all immediately acceptable to me without need for discussion.

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 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Please note that I am a citizen of Virginia, and am using MuckRock's services to help manage and track my request.

Sincerely,

Tom Nash

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>
Upload documents directly: https://accounts.muckrock.com/accounts/login/?url_auth_token=AAAuuZddVSt10pelYXLUjmKSLCE%3A1jMLQv%3A3siUMsVWSOJj1kBEWsnXEKX5DUI&next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.muckrock.com%2Faccounts%2Flogin%2F%3Fnext%3D%252Faccounts%252Fagency_login%252Ftown-of-christiansburg-10623%252Funtitled-91235%252F%253Femail%253Dmdemmitt%252540christiansburg.org
Is this email coming to the wrong contact? Something else wrong? Use the above link to let us know.

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 91235
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.
[http://email.requests.muckrock.com/o/eJwNykEOwiAQAMDXyJEsuwuEAwfT6jcMBWxJpY1A_69znuS1NiLXUD6vkrwCR6yU2DxwCJZjShnjwhmtRkNWEbwpkQskikdAAAYHoJFJKukMk5mf0_0xs8WJbwwtf6_cR5f1ins74y7jWUXzNeVayxj_ErdW-ijh6MvVVnm29QcMiSyk]