Ocean Policy Records involving NROC, the NE-RPB, and Private Entities • MuckRock

25 Communications
3 Files

Communications

From: Tom Hatfield

05/21/2013

Subject: None

None

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"), I hereby request the following records:

All electronic records generated or received from November 1, 2012 until present and which can be considered to be associated with, or relate to:
1.) the state considering and/or being advised as to whether the Northeast Regional Planning Body (NE-RPB) is a federal agency, entity, or endeavor;
2.) the NE-RPB being considered and/or defined to be a “convening body”;
3.) the status of the NE-RPB under state law, regulation, gubernatorial executive order or policy of any state agency;
4.) policies, guidelines, and recommendations concerning the process by which NE-RPB decisions are made including, but not limited to, decisions of the executive secretariat;
5.) sources of NE-RPB funding and/or support (including donated goods and/or services);
6.) conditions attached to funding the NE-RPB receives;
7.) NE-RPB information disclosure policies and/or any records with respect to how to respond to information disclosure requests;
8.) the activities and/or communications involving the NE-RPB executive secretariat;
9.) Northeast Regional Ocean Council (NROC) funding and/or support (including donated goods and/or services);
10.) policies, guidelines, and recommendations concerning the process by which NROC decisions are made;
11.) any conditions attached to NROC funding;
12.) policies and procedures regarding personal identifying information (PII) that may be collected and/or used by NROC, and any records associated with that PII and any state and federal/state privacy laws;
13.) any association between NROC and Seaplan;
14.) NROC hosting, maintenance, use and/or access to the NE-RPB webpage;
15.) ownership of the NROC Internet domain and all records related to the proxy being used for purposes of ICANN reporting and/or registration;
16.) NROC meetings that involve regional ocean planning, inclusive of those records that discuss those planning activities in relation to NE-RPB activity;
17.) amounts and rates associated with NROC expenditures on administration, staff, overhead, business expenses, and contributions;
18.) policies, guidelines, and recommendations, recorded discussions concerning NROC staff or personnel engaging in lobbying activities at the federal, state, and/or local level;
19.) the Massachusetts Ocean Partnership and/or Seaplan, including any conflict of interest statements that include reference to those entities;
20.) public private partnerships and/or requirements for public accountability, transparency, and/or information disclosure policies involving non-governmental entities;
21.) private and/or public funds being transferred to Massachusetts Ocean Partnership, Seaplan, and/or NROC;
22.) Third Sector NewEngland funding to the State, Massachusetts Ocean Partnership, Seaplan, and/or NROC;
23.) the policies and procedures associated with any PII that may be collected and/or used by Seaplan, and any records associated with that PII and any state and federal/state privacy laws;
24.) complaints, disputes, legal actions, and/or other similar records associated with Seaplan and any person associated with Seaplan;
25.) any limitations of liability, assignments, licenses, and/or waivers that involve Seaplan and/or Seaplan produced, provided or received data, information, and services;
26.) agreements/contracts/memoranda of understanding between any of the NE-RPB, NOAA, and NROC “partners”, collaborators, and contractors, including, but not limited to, Seaplan;
27.) decisions, notices, and communications related to NROC and/or Seaplan maps or the Northeast Data Portal at the public NE-RPB engagement meetings scheduled for May and June 2013;
28.) NROC and/or the NE-RPB referencing offshore wind power generation issues of maintenance, security, safety, and lifespan of generation structures;
29.) any communications and/or requests referencing the U.S. Congressional Committee on Natural Resources and ocean planning in the Northeast; and
30.) communications to/from/regarding the Council on Environmental Quality, Grover Fugate, Nick Napoli, John Weber, Stephanie Moura, Laura Cantral, Deerin Babb-Brott, the National Ocean Council, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Consensus Building Institute, and/or members of the state or federal legislatures.

I also request that, if possible and pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. § 1-212(d), fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest and not made for commercial gain. The requested documents will be processed by a representative of the news media/press and made available to the public at MuckRock.com.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, 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 4 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Tom Hatfield

From: MuckRock.com

06/11/2013

Subject: None

None

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 5, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: DEEP FOIA

06/11/2013

Subject: None

None

Dear Mr. Hatfield:
I do not a record of your submitting the request below to me or to the agency FOIA website. Can you please advise whether you submitted this request directly to a DEEP staff member so I can try and locate it. The only request I have from you dates back to March 2013, which you ultimately withdraw on or April 2, 2013. If the request as recited below is directed to this agency, I can certainly state that it seems to be quite voluminous and may well take some time. Please provide me with further clarification as requested. Thank you.

Mary Lou Kramer, Paralegal
Office of Legal Counsel
Office of the Commissioner
Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
79 Elm St.
Hartford, CT 06106
Tel: 860-424-3058 (x3058)
Fax: 860 424-4053
Email: marylou.kramer@ct.gov

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This email, including attachments, contains information that is confidential and may be protected by the attorney/client or other privileges. This e-mail, including attachments, constitutes non-public information intended to be conveyed only to the designated recipient(s). If you are not an intended recipient, please delete this e-mail, including attachments, and notify me. The unauthorized use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of this e-mail, including attachments, is prohibited and may be unlawful.
***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

From: Tom Hatfield

06/12/2013

Subject: None

None

Hi Ms. Kramer,

The request most recently sent was not addressed to a specific person. Are you the appropriate point of contact for future requests?

Thanks

Tom Nash
MuckRock

From: DEEP FOIA

06/12/2013

Subject: None

None

I have been advised that the appropriate person you should be contacting for information/documentation is Katie Lund - NOAA Affiliate. Her email address is:

katie.lund@noaa.gov

From: Tom Hatfield

06/20/2013

Subject: None

None

This request is for CT records, and Katie Lund is a NOAA contractor. I assume that CT does not vet all FOIA requests through federal agencies? Perhaps Ms. Kramer can provide CT statutory authority for referring a valid CT FOIA request to NOAA?

To add context to the request, the Northeast Regional Planning Body is a planning group that CT voluntarily participates on through state officials acting on their official capacity, and that the Northeast Regional Ocean Council is a regional group that CT also participates on through two (2) state officials. The records that those CT state officials generate and receive in their official CT capacity are CT records under the CT FOIA statutes. As such, those records are CT public records, and there is nothing in the CT statutes that allows for the response to be forwarded to a federal agency.

I would expect that these records will be produced as soon a practicable, unless of course Ms. Kramer is denying the request outright.

From: DEEP FOIA

06/20/2013

Subject: None

None

I will filter this inquiry again and get back to you. Thank you.

From: DEEP FOIA

06/21/2013

Subject: None

None

Dear Sir:

This responds to your June 20, 2013 request for public records relating to the above subject matter. In response to your request, the Department will search its files to locate the requested records and to determine which, if any, contain privileged information. The search will be conducted as promptly as possible, and you will be notified once it is completed. Please be advised that responsive documents exceeding $10.00 will require prepayment. The fee for the same is $ .25 per page. This fee will not be waived. It has come to my attention that given the volume of documents you have requested that considerable time may be involved in compiling, reviewing and counting responsive, non-exempt documents. Accordingly, I ask that you please notify me if you no longer have a need for this information as soon as possible.

You will be notified of the final count and the dollar amount needed to receive the copies. You can, of course, choose to come in and conduct a personal review of the documents and select the ones you wish copied, once they have been compiled.

If you have any questions in the interim, please do not hesitate to contact me.

From: MuckRock.com

07/07/2013

Subject: None

None

To Whom It May Concern:

Thank you for your help.

From: DEEP FOIA

07/08/2013

Subject: None

None

Staff are working on compiling responsive documents and then a review of the same will need to be made. You will be notified once they are all gathered at which time you will have the option of either receiving copies of everything, or conducting a personal review of the same for selection. However, it is now a decision that needs to be made at this time. Thank you for your patience.

From: Tom Hatfield

07/11/2013

Subject: None

None

Ms. Kramer,

As I mentioned, I am interested only in obtaining copies of electronic records at this time. I am assuming that your last sentence was intended to state that a decision was [not] needed at this time, instead of "now" needed?

Please understand that I would like to receive records as they become available. As such, I would hope that you will disclose them as they are reviewed.

All the best,

Tom Hatfield

From: DEEP FOIA

07/12/2013

Subject: None

None

On July 8, 2013:

From: MukRock

07/12/2013

Subject: None

None

Editor's Note: Payment of $20 mailed to Main Department of Natural Resources.

From: DEEP FOIA

07/26/2013

Subject: None

None

I have been given a CD containing responsive documents. The fee for the same is $2.00 which you can remit directly to me. Kindly provide a mailing address for the CD. I have not received documents from remaining staff. Thank you.

From: Kramer, MaryLou

08/02/2013

Subject: None

None

Mr. Hatfield:
I would like to forward you the CD but I need a mailing address. This is my second request for your mailing address. Or, should it be mailed to

MuckRock News
DEPT MR 5663
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

Please clarify. Thank you.

From: Tom Hatfield

08/02/2013

Subject: None

None

Hello,

Apologies. You can send the CD to:

MuckRock News
DEPT MR 5663
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

Thank you.

From: Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

08/05/2013

Subject: None

None

A copy of documents responsive to the request.

Responsive Documents
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From: Tom Hatfield

08/13/2013

Subject: None

None

Please note that this response appears to be inconsistent with the Connecticut General Statutes concerning response to Freedom of Information Requests by state agencies. For example, this response appears to only include email headers and fails to include the body text of any email messages, yet provides no statement as to the basis for that limited disclosure. I hope that your agency will immediately review its record disclosure in this case, and provide complete records. In addition, it appears that some records disclosed by Maine to the Muck Rock site, which include your agency on the distribution list and are responsive to the CT request, are not accounted for in the email headers you provided. As such, your document search methodology and/or document exclusion procedures should be reviewed.

From: Kramer, MaryLou

08/13/2013

Subject: None

None

I am assuming you received the CD I previously sent you. Can you please acknowledge receipt of the same. Thanks.

From: Tom Hatfield

08/23/2013

Subject: None

None

Information was received on a CD. Would you please identify what records and/or portions of records were not disclosed? It appears that the records you provided were heavily redacted, yet an explanation (as required by CT General Statutes) was not provided by your office.

From: Kramer, MaryLou

08/23/2013

Subject: None

None

I checked with Brian Thompson who provided the CD and he advised that he did not redact anything from the documents. It may have been done inadvertently when he copied the documents onto a CD. I am trying to see if we can transmit electronically, but can't be certain. I will get back to you. We may have to get our IT folks to put them onto another CD. Thanks.

From: Kramer, MaryLou

08/26/2013

Subject: None

None

We had our IT staff transfer the documents onto a CD and I will be sending that to you. You will need to have Outlook on your computer in order to open the CD. If this does not work, you can obtain hard copy documents at $ .25 per page, or come in and conduct a personal review of the documents, and then choose the ones you wish to have copied. Again, nothing has been redacted or withheld. I will be sending this new CD to the same address you provided below. Thank you.

From: Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

08/29/2013

Subject: None

None

A cover letter granting the request and outlining any exempted materials, if any.

Cover Letter
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From: Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

08/29/2013

Subject: None

None

A copy of documents responsive to the request.

From: Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

08/29/2013

Subject: None

None

A copy of documents responsive to the request.

Responsive Documents
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Files

pages

08/05/2013

Responsive Documents
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<iframe src="https://www.muckrock.com/foi/file/9873/embed/" width="100%" height="600px"></iframe>
08/29/2013

Cover Letter
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08/29/2013

Responsive Documents
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