TCF Regional Care Center - Communications (Michigan Department of Health and Human Services)
| Tracking # |
H011969-061621 |
| Multi Request | TCF Regional Care Center - Communications |
| Submitted | June 15, 2021 |
| Est. Completion | June 24, 2021 |
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Communications
From: Erin Marie Miller
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
All communications related to the planning, funding, construction, and closure of the TCF Regional Care Center in Detroit, MI between the dates of 3/1/2020 and 5/10/2020.
Communications should include, but not be limited to, emails, texts, and written/printed documents - please make sure to check filing cabinets in addition to searching digital communications.
Your search should include, but not be limited to, communications of/between the following people and others related to the project:
- Robert Gordon
- Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
- Lynn Torossian
- Dr. Jenny Atas
- James K. Joseph
- Maj. Gen. Paul Rogers
- Lt. Col. Gregory Turner
- FEMA Region 5 staff
To avoid any potential confusion, please send all responsive documents to this email address (through Muckrock), and not to my personal email address. In a previous request, another Michigan agency seems to have had my personal email address on file from an older request, and for some reason they decided to send the requested documents there instead of to Muckrock. Please do not do this.
Please send all documents related to this FOIA request to this email address only.
I am willing to pay up to $25 for the requested information. If there is a fee that exceeds that amount, please notify me prior to initiating work on the request.
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.
Sincerely,
Erin Marie Miller
From: Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Dear Mrs. Miller,
Thank you for your interest in public records of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (hereinafter “Department”).
Records Requested: To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
All communications related to the planning, funding, construction, and closure of the TCF Regional Care Center in Detroit, MI between the dates of 3/1/2020 and 5/10/2020.
Communications should include, but not be limited to, emails, texts, and written/printed documents - please make sure to check filing cabinets in addition to searching digital communications.
Your search should include, but not be limited to, communications of/between the following people and others related to the project:
- Robert Gordon
- Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
- Lynn Torossian
- Dr. Jenny Atas
- James K. Joseph
- Maj. Gen. Paul Rogers
- Lt. Col. Gregory Turner
- FEMA Region 5 staff
To avoid any potential confusion, please send all responsive documents to this email address (through Muckrock), and not to my personal email address. In a previous request, another Michigan agency seems to have had my personal email address on file from an older request, and for some reason they decided to send the requested documents there instead of to Muckrock. Please do not do this.
Please send all documents related to this FOIA request to this email address only.
I am willing to pay up to $25 for the requested information. If there is a fee that exceeds that amount, please notify me prior to initiating work on the request.
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.
Sincerely,
Erin Marie Miller
Upload documents directly: https://https://www.muckrock.comhttps://www.muckrock.com/
Your request has been assigned the following tracking number: H011969-061621. Your request has a legally received date of June 17, 2021. You will receive a response by the Department by June 24, 2021. Unfortunately, we are unable to expedite requests and the time permitted for response by the Department may be extended beyond June 24, 2021 by ten (10) business days.
In accordance with the Michigan Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), MCL 15.231 et seq, the Department provides copies of existing non-exempt records. Records which are exempt from disclosure under state or federal law will not be provided, or records may be redacted to separate exempt information. The FOIA does not require the Department to create new records or answer queries.
You can monitor the progress of your request at the MDHHS Public Records Center and you will receive an email when your request has been completed.
Regards,
Bureau of Legal Affairs,
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
From: Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
RE: Public Records Request, Reference # H011969-061621
Dear Mrs. Miller,
This notice is issued in response to your request, legally received by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (Department) on June 17, 2021, requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), MCL 15.231 et seq.
Your request is granted as to existing nonexempt records.
The Department has estimated the cost for searching, retrieval, and review of the requested records and separation of exempt and nonexempt information. The estimated cost of your FOIA request as well as the required deposit is stated in the invoice located in the MDHHS Public Records Center, where you may pay your invoice and deposit online. Upon payment of the deposit the Department will process your request. The required deposit must be received within 48 days from the date of this communication; otherwise, your request will be considered abandoned. The Department is aware that this invoice is high. This is due to the search for your request returning 232,993 separate communications, each of which would need to be manually reviewed for confidential and other exempt information. The Department determined that sixty employees may have had responsive communications. Searching these email accounts for the time period requested with the search terms (Gretchen Whitmer, Lynn Torossian, Jenny Atas, James K. Joseph, Paul Rogers, Gregory Turner, plan, planning, fund, funding, construct, construction, close, closure, TC, regional care center) produced the 232,993 results. Please let us know if you would like to discuss how to narrow your request. Additionally, the Department has already waived half of the fringe benefit fee it is permitted to charge under MCL 15.243 Sec. 4(2). The Department is processing a much smaller FOIA request of around seven hundred communications regarding the closure of the TCF center that has been paid for by another requestor. Those communications will be published to the Frequently Requested Records page of the MDHHS Public Records Center once that request has been fully processed.
The Department’s best effort estimate for time to complete your request is thirty business days from the date the deposit is received. Once your FOIA request has been processed the Department will send you a final invoice, which may be more or less than the estimate. Payment must be received in full before records will be provided.
The Department’s FOIA policies and procedures are available at Policies and Procedures
Sincerely,
Bureau of Legal Affairs
From: Erin Marie Miller
Thank you for your response. I am waiting on MuckRock's staff to make the invoice available. As of right now, I am unable to view it.
In the meantime, I would be grateful to hear MDHHS's recommendations for narrowing this request in order to receive the most relevant information related to the request for a fee that is realistic for everyday citizens to afford.
Also, I appreciate you letting me know about the related request that you are already currently working on. I will make sure to look for it in the FOIA records database on the MDHHS website.
Thank you.
From: Erin Marie Miller
Just to follow up on this, I was able to view the invoice.
Since a fee of $284,541.48 is obviously not a realistic fee for almost anyone seeking government records, I am definitely interested in discussing ways to narrow the request.
Please advise.
Thank you.
From: Erin Marie Miller
I apologize for sending another message so quickly, but after comparing this fee to other fees I've been quoted by MDHHS for significantly larger and broader requests earlier this year, I'm confused about how MDHHS determined the fee for this request.
Referring back to MDHHS FOIA request reference number H009277-011321, which requested data about used and unused/empty adult ICU, AIIR, and surgical beds, and ventilators in Michigan throughout all of 2020, in addition to "copies of all COVID-19 related data, statistics, correspondence, documentation, scientific models, medical advice, and/or policy recommendations that were provided by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), including by its consultants, partners, and contractors, to government officials (and their staff) at the local, state, and federal levels between 2019 and 2021," I was quoted a fee of $37,590.00 (see MDHHS FOIA invoice number INV21-H009277-1, dated 1/20/2021).
Can you possibly explain why a request that asked for over a year's worth of correspondence, in addition to over a year's worth of data, was quoted a fee of $37,590.00 -- but this request (which asked only for *two months* worth of correspondence) was quoted a fee of $284,541.48? The State is asking for 7.5 times more money to provide six times less information.
If possible, can you please explain the reasoning used by MDHHS to determine this fee compared to the other fee?
Thank you.
From: Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Hello,
These things generally reduce the cost of FOIA requests:
1. Request less days of communications
2. Specify specific people whose communications you seek (the fewer the people the less the cost)
3. Specify that you seek communications only among two specific individuals
4. Provide specific search terms that you seek in such communications (generally, the fewer the terms the less the cost)
5. Avoid terms that will likely be in many communications, such as common words and phrases
6. Specify multiple search terms that must exist together, such as in Boolean AND searches (two or more terms must exist together)
We hope you find this helpful.
The request the Department is currently processing referenced in our notice is for "[a]ll transcripts of telephone conversations, emails and correspondence regarding the construction, use, operation, financing, staffing and closure of the TCF Center as a Covid-19 field hospital from March 1, 2020 to present (March 18, 2021)." The Department does not possess telephone transcripts, however, and we are only processing correspondence.
The Department already articulated the reason for the invoice in the notice previously sent to you:
"The Department is aware that this invoice is high. This is due to the search for your request returning 232, 993 separate communications, each of which would need to be manually reviewed for confidential and other exempt information. The Department determined that sixty employees may have had responsive communications. Searching these email accounts for the time period requested with the search terms (Gretchen Whitmer, Lynn Torossian, Jenny Atas, James K. Joseph, Paul Rogers, Gregory Turner, plan, planning, fund, funding, construct, construction, close, closure, TC, regional care center) produced the 232, 993 results.
Legal Affairs
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following Michigan Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 15, 2021. You had previously indicated that it would be completed on June 24, 2021. I wanted to check on the status of my request, and to see if there was a new estimated completion date. You had assigned it reference number #H011969-061621.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Erin Marie Miller
Thank you for your response, and for the tips for reducing FOIA fees.
In an email dated 2/19/2021 9:02am ET, Donald Bierer of the MDHHS Bureau of Legal Affairs emailed me from the email address MDHHS-FOIA@michigan.gov (a public-facing email address) regarding the very broad request I mentioned in my previous message to you. That request, H009277-011321, was quoted a fee of $37,590.00 (see MDHHS FOIA invoice number INV21-H009277-1, dated 1/20/2021).
In that email, Mr. Bierer wrote, "Please consider that your request is very expansive. Even just one part of your eleven part request (“Copies of all correspondence between MDHHS (including its contractors, partners, and consultants) and any government office or official (and their staff) at the local, state, and federal levels regarding COVID-19-related public policy, including recommendations or advice about the operations, closures, and openings of businesses, schools, and nursing home/care facilities between 2019 and 2021.”) would encompass communications of thousands of employees for over two years. Requests we have received for six months of one senior employee’s COVID-related communications have exceeded 30,000 communications. Each communication must be manually reviewed and redacted for privileged and exempt information. You are welcome to narrow the scope of your request to reduce the fee."
That request asked for 12+ months worth of communications from considerably more MDHHS staff, but it was somehow quoted a fee that is significantly less than this one, which asks for only two months worth of communications of staff limited only to the TCF Regional Care Center project.
Again, can you please explain how MDHHS arrived at the fee of $284,541.48 for this request? It does not seem logical when comparing the two requests and their fees.
From: Erin Marie Miller
Hello,
Following up on this request, I would like to narrow it down as your agency recommended in your previous message to me.
In an effort to reduce the fees, please let me know an estimate for the more narrow version of my request outlined below:
Please provide all e-mails related to the planning, funding, construction, and closure of the TCF Regional Care Center in Detroit, MI between the dates of 3/1/2020 and 5/10/2020. Please also include any attachments to those e-mails.
Please limit your search to only e-mails sent to or received by any of the following individuals:
- Robert Gordon: GordonR3@michigan.gov
- Gretchen Whitmer: WhitmerG1@michigan.gov
- Mark Totten: TottenM1@michigan.gov
- Dana Nessel: dananessel@gmail.com, miag@michigan.gov
- Elizabeth Hertel: HertelE@michigan.gov
- Tricia Foster: FosterT13@michigan.gov
- Joanna Huls: HulsJ1@michigan.gov
To avoid any potential confusion, please send all responsive documents to this email address (through Muckrock), and not to my personal email address. In a previous request, another Michigan agency seems to have had my personal email address on file from an older request, and for some reason they decided to send the requested documents there instead of to Muckrock. Once again, please do not do this.
Please send all documents related to this FOIA request to this email address only.
Again, I am willing to pay up to $25 for the requested information. If there is a fee that exceeds that amount, please notify me prior to initiating work on the request.
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.
Sincerely,
Erin Miller
From: Erin Marie Miller
Hello,
Following up on my previous message, please ignore my request for an invoice for the more narrow search.
I am going to file a new request instead.
Thank you.
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