Expenditures relating to visits from federal officials (Department of Correction)

Emma North-Best filed this request with the Department of Correction of Delaware.
Multi Request Expenditures relating to visits from federal officials
Submitted Sept. 23, 2019
Status
Rejected

Communications

From: Jonathan Rudenberg

Subject: Delaware Freedom of Information Act Request: Expenditures relating to visits from federal officials (Department of Correction)

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To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Delaware Freedom of Information 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 15 business days, as the statute requires.

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

Sincerely,

Jonathan Rudenberg

From: Department of Correction

Subject: FW: Attached Image

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J. Rudenberg,

Your recent DOC FOIA request for Expenditures relating to visits from Federal Officials is being
denied at this time. The address that was provided (MuckRock News, Dept.MR 17890 411A
Highland Ave., Somerville, MA 02144-2516) would indicate that the requestor is not a citizen
of the State of Delaware.

Please see: 29 Del. C. ยง 10001. Declaration of Policy.

It is vital in a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public
manner so that our citizens shall have the opportunity to observe the performance of public
officials and to monitor the decisions that are made by such officials in formulating and of
executing public policy; and further, it is vital that citizens have easy access to public records
in order that the society remain free and democratic. Towards these ends, and to further the
accountability of government to the citizens of this State, this chapter is adopted, and shall be
construed.

It should also be noted that FOIA requests should be submitted via email to DOC_FOIA_Request
@delaware.gov. With this response, your DOC FOIA request for visitor expenditures to include
prior requests for same on 10/30/19, and 9/23/19 are considered closed.

Thank you,
Tim Martin
DE DOC

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