Montgomery County Sheriff/Othram - Request from Vice News

[4/04/2022]
Re: Request Under Texas Public Information Act

Dear Public Information Administrator:

This letter constitutes a request pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act. We respectfully request that you provide us with the following information within 10 business days of your receipt of this letter.

Requester’s Name: Judy Cai
Organization: Vice News, (Vice Media LLC)
Job title: Associate Producer, Vice News Tonight
Address: 589 Venice Blvd, Vice Media, Venice, CA 90291
Email: judy.cai@vice.com

Records sought:

Copies of contracts into which the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and/or the Montgomery County Forensic Services has entered with Othram Inc. between Jan. 1 2018 and the time this request is processed.
Copies of any proposals or presentations anyone representing Othram Inc. has presented to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and/or the Montgomery County Forensic Services between Jan. 2018 and the time this request is processed; these may be identifiable by searching for records attached to anyone whose email address ends in @othram.com.
Copies of any correspondence between any official in the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and/or the Montgomery County Forensic Services with the authority to review contract proposals or enter into contracts and anyone with an email address ending in @othram.com dated between Jan. 1 2018 and the time this request is processed. I also request that any documents attached to any discovered correspondence be provided in .pdf format.

Format and delivery:

Electronic records should be produced in their unlocked native format with all original metadata and original filenames. Paper documents should be scanned and produced as Adobe PDF files. Emails produced should be grouped together with any attachments. When searching emails, please search all folders, including inbox, subject matter folders, sent items, archived items, and deleted items. Please produce all metadata fields for emails, including BCC and all others. Please email all records produced to judy.cai@vice.com.

Fees:

The above request is a matter of public interest. As such, we request a fee waiver. The disclosure of the information sought is not for commercial purposes; instead, it will contribute to the public’s understanding of government operations. 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.

Additional information:

If this request is denied in whole or in part, I ask that you justify all deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the Texas Public Information Act. Please inform us of the reason(s) for such denial in writing, and provide the name, mailing address, and email address of the person or body to whom an appeal should be directed. I expect the release of all segregable portions of otherwise exempt material. Please do not redact any non-responsive information from any records; we request the complete copies of any records with any responsive information.

In the interest of time, I request that you provide documents as they become available rather than waiting for the complete set.

Thank you in advance for providing the records we have requested. If you have any questions in processing this request, I can be contacted at the email above.

Sincerely,

Judy Cai
Date: 4/04/2022