Employee listing (Niagara Falls City School District)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New York State Freedom of Information Law (1977 N.Y. Laws ch. 933), I hereby request the following records:

A listing of every officer and/or employee of the agency, including name, office address, title and salary.

Per NEW YORK PUBLIC OFFICERS LAW, ARTICLE 6, Section 87(3)(b):

"Each agency shall maintain:
[....]
(b) a record setting forth the name, public office address, title and salary of every officer or employee of the agency."

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

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 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Lesser

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 12, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 12, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

Hello,

Thank you for sending the listing of employees. Could you please send the listing in original data format, rather than as a PDF? It appears this was pulled from a database query. Please advise if this is not the case. We can handle most common data formats.

I would also like some additional information regarding the considerable fee. Please provide an explanation as to why there would be a need to compile such a record in the first place — the FOIL statute requires each agency to maintain this document — and why such compilation required 14 hours. In addition, please clarify whether the 14 hours included search time.

I would also note that the request letter asked for notification of any charges prior to proceeding with fulfilling the request.

Thank you.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 12, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

Hello,

As noted in the January 30 correspondence copied below, we seek:

1) an electronic copy of the listing, as required under the FOIL statute and requested in the original FOIL; and
2) an explanation as to the considerable fee for compilation, given that this document is required to be maintained per the FOIL statute.

Thank you.

Hello,

Please indicate the contact information for the School Attorney for direct followup.

Thank you.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 12, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

Hello -

This request was submitted by Benjamin Lesser and Shawn Musgrave. As indicated below, the considerable fee is concerning given that the requested information is required by the cited statute to be maintained by every government agency in New York. Please advise as to the district's fee estimate. Please also advise whether the district is able to provide the requested information in an electronic, digital format per the original request. To date, neither of these issues has been adequately addressed.

Thank you.

Hello,

Please advise as to the status of this FOIL request and corresponding fee estimate for providing the employee listing of the Niagara Falls City School District.

Thank you.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 12, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 12, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

Mr. Massaro -

Respectfully, I have attempted to resolve outstanding issues regarding the district's fee estimate and provision of the employee listing in digital format since January. I am traveling at the moment and believe these issues can be resolved via email. If not, I can call later in the week.

I have copied the email sent in January, as well as attached the documents and invoice referred therein. Neither question has yet to be resolved, although since the PDF is machine readable, the most pressing matter is the considerable fee — more than $300 — for a document that the FOIL statute requires government agencies to maintain. In particular, it is unclear how it took an employee 14 hours to query what appears to be a human resources database.

I look forward to your reply.

Respectfully,
Shawn Musgrave, MuckRock

====
SENT on 01/30/2015:
====
Hello,

Thank you for sending the listing of employees. Could you please send the listing in original data format, rather than as a PDF? It appears this was pulled from a database query. Please advise if this is not the case. We can handle most common data formats.

I would also like some additional information regarding the considerable fee. Please provide an explanation as to why there would be a need to compile such a record in the first place — the FOIL statute requires each agency to maintain this document — and why such compilation required 14 hours. In addition, please clarify whether the 14 hours included search time.

I would also note that the request letter asked for notification of any charges prior to proceeding with fulfilling the request.

Thank you.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 12, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 12, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 12, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 12, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 12, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 12, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

Hello Mr. Massaro -

I just attempted to call but got your voicemail. Is this something we can work out over email? Again, we are confused at the steep fee that the district attempted to charge for an electronic document that the New York FOIL statute requires each agency to maintain.

Respectfully,
Shawn Musgrave
MuckRock

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 12, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

Hello -

MuckRock's office number: 617-299-1832. We'll be out of the office for a conference the next few days, so communicating via email is likely to be the most productive.

Respectfully,
Shawn Musgrave
MuckRock