Mined Minds Record Retention and RTKL Disclosure

C Crandall filed this request with the Washington Greene County Job Training Agency, Inc. of Pennsylvania.
Submitted Jan. 15, 2022
Status
Awaiting Acknowledgement

Communications

From: C Crandall

Subject: Pennsylvania Right to Know Act Request: Mined Minds Record Retention and RTKL Disclosure

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Pennsylvania Right to Know Act, I hereby request the following records:

WGCJA has previously responded to my FOIA request by stating that the Agency does not have the information I am seeking in its possession and therefore is unable to comply.

However, because the data being sought has been reported for other periods, and having reviewed the terms of pw-18926-im_13_mined_minds_contract.pdf, pages 28 and 29, exhibits F and G "Record Retention" and "Disclosure," I am again seeking the complete records set - if necessary, to be obtained from the sub-grantee.

I will send by email attachment excerpts from reports showing Mined Minds invoices to WGCJA 10.30.17 through 11.24.17 and 8.20.18 through 10.26.18 to help you understand exactly what is being sought for the missing time periods. These are: January through August 8 2018 and October 12 2018 through May 2019.

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,

C Crandall

From: C Crandall

Subject: RE: Pennsylvania Right to Know Act Request: Mined Minds Record Retention and RTKL Disclosure

Email

Hello Ryan,

Thank you for your prompt reply, I appreciate it!

As I would think you are aware, your sub-grantee Mined Minds Foundation is not a public entity, is therefore not obliged to respond to Pennsylvania’s “Right to Know Law” inquiries, which is the reason I have directed these requests to WGCJA, as the relevant contracting grantee for Appalachian Regional Commission POWER grant funding.

I find it implausible that your organization would have paid out four times to MM without supporting invoices and supporting documentation during the timeframe in question.

Adjusting this inquiry accordingly, I hereby request email records between involved WGCJA personnel for the period 1.1.18 through today 1.19.22

Jeffrey Nobili jnobili@washingtongreene.org
Ryan Russell rrussell@washingtongreene.org
Ami Gatts agatts@washingtongreene.org
To and from MinedMinds
Amanda Laucher Amanda.laucher@minedminds.org
Jonathan Graham Jonathan.graham@minedminds.org
Mined Minds General purpose email info@minedminds.org

Thank you for your assistance,

Catherine

From: C Crandall

Subject: RE: Pennsylvania Right to Know Act Request: Mined Minds Record Retention and RTKL Disclosure

Email

Hello Ryan,

I do appreciate that you are a small agency and it is not my intent to negatively impact your workload. There are a great many things I would like to learn, but with a genuine intent to simplify the request, I’m seeking only supporting details regarding payments to the sub-grantee Mined Minds.

Per the Grant Agreement Between ARC and WGCJT, your agency is the fiscal agent and central coordinating organization, and ARC grants are to be administered in accord with the Office of Management and Budget guidelines, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, Audit Requirements for Federal Awards found in Chapter 2 of Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations and other Federal regulations as applicable. The Agreement specifically states that “no subcontracting shall relieve the Grantee of any obligations of their grant agreement.”
• Disbursements by WGCJA as the Grantee shall be supported by invoices and other data evidencing disbursements.
• Per the ARC Grant Agreement Part I and II for PW-18926 -IM_54385 “Grantee shall establish procedures to ensure that all records pertaining to costs, expenses and funds related to the Agreement shall be kept in a manner which is consistent with generally accepted accounting procedures….filed in such a manner that it can be readily located.” “Grantee shall maintain custody of time records, payrolls and other data, as appropriate, to substantiate all services reported to the Commission.” And “until the expiration of three years after final payment…have access to…transactions related to this Agreement.”
• And “The Grantee will, in each subcontract, require subcontractor to agree to the application of the provisions of this article in a similar manner to the subcontractor’s records relating to said subcontract.”

WGCJA has published its Oversight Policy, which includes fiscal review procedures. Invoices from the service provider (in this case Mined Minds) would have been viewed during a site visit. It seems that attendance and payroll verification being matched to invoices would have been part of this process, but if your agency did not retain the accounting related to payouts, you have the right to obtain this material from Mined Minds.

To clarify, the details I’m seeking for the time period 1.1. 18 through 5.30.19 are:

• Activity Date
• Customer
• Description
• Duration
• Employee for the time period 1.1. 18 through 5.30.19

An example of the format you’ve published previously can be found in the attached document on pages 10-16 (invoice and time accounting).

My more recent request for email records is intended to relieve this burden from you, as I would sift through communications for the supporting documentation your agency is sure to have received in some fashion to reimburse this sub-grantee, even if it has not been filed so as to readily locate it. As these emails are public record as well, perhaps this would work for both of us.

Please let me know how you would like to proceed,

Catherine

From: C Crandall

Subject: RE: Pennsylvania Right to Know Act Request: Mined Minds Record Retention and RTKL Disclosure

Email

Hello Ryan,

Having not heard back from you, I did some checking about your suggestion that I approach the sub-grantee with an Open Records request. Did some asking around and learned that I may not request records from the third party (in this case Mined Minds Foundation), but you as the grantee may. This is what Pennsylvania RCFP says on the matter:

Note that the requester may not seek such records from the third party; rather, the requester must seek them from the agency: “A request for a public record in possession of a party other than the agency shall be submitted to the open records officer of the agency.” 65 Pa. Stat. Ann. § 67.506(d)(3).

I hope this helps.

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