FOIA Request: Emails to/from Councilor Kim Gray containing the words “antifa” between January 1, 2020 and current date
| Submitted | July 28, 2020 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Shawn Breen
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
Emails to/from Councilor Kim Gray containing the words “antifa” between January 1, 2020 and current date (date this request is actually processed for search of records).
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,
Shawn Breen
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Virginia Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 28, 2020. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From:
City closed today but am working on :) - steve
Sent from my iPhone
From:
Shawn Breen – Hope you and your family are doing well during these unprecedented times that affect us all. Per your request, the estimated cost for due diligence regarding accessing, searching, supplying records (if they exist) is $573. Based on amount of time and work required, it would not be practically possible to provide records (if they exist) or determine if they are available within the five-work-day period, this being the fifth day of receipt, as provided for and per previously shared that the city was closed Tuesday (due to inclement hurricane/aftermath) and an additional seven work days would be required. Also, due to the scope of the request and ongoing COVID-19 related issues and unforeseen circumstances, it is possible that such would require additional practicable time to accomplish, which we would be happy to discuss regarding moving forward. As a next step, please send a deposit in the above amount, noting the request, payable to the City of Richmond (Re: Richmond City Council Records Search Request), to the Richmond City Council Office of the Council Chief of Staff, Richmond City Council Executive Offices, Richmond City Hall, 900 E. Broad Street, Suite 305, Richmond, Virginia 23219. Thank you very much for your understanding during such extraordinary times. - steve
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~WRD260
From: Shawn Breen
Hello,
This request is being made as a journalist, and I am requesting a fee waiver as this is a non-commercial request. In the event that you will not accommodate a fee waiver, please provide a detailed cost estimate showing how many persons time is involved, the total number of hours required, and the persons hourly wage. I am also willing to negotiate the scope and delivery terms in a good faith attempt to reduce the work involved and also to extend the timeframe.
Also, I noticed that the cost estimate for this request is exactly the same as a cost estimate for a similar but different request I submitted at the same time.
It is puzzling how both requests could take the exact amount of time and work out to the exact same cost estimate. Your response also states that you don't even know if the records exist, so please provide an explanation for how you are able to come up with an estimate for a final product that you claim in your response that you aren't even sure if the documents exist.
Thanks very much,
Shawn Breen
From:
Shawn Breen – You are very welcome. Thank you very much. Per your request, please find the following detailed cost estimate regarding due diligence for searching and providing records responsive to your request, which includes descriptive/explanatory information with regard to process involved. Based on the times, the existence of such records is fairly conceivable and such is estimated conservatively on if they exist, accordingly, on your behalf. - steve
1. RDIT (Richmond Department of Information Technology); Searching/producing/providing electronic govt. acct. email database.
1 person
2 hours @ $47/hour = $94 est.
2. RCCOCCOS (Richmond City Council Office of the Council Chief of Staff): Receiving/searching files/attachments, prepare/packaged/provide records/information for Councilmember review.
1 person
2 hours @ $37/hour = $74 est.
3. Councilmember: Receive/review/respond to RCCOCCOS regarding govt. acct`. email.
1 person
1 hour @ $24/hour (part-time 20 hours/week $25k) = $24 est.
4. RCCOCCOS (Richmond City Council Office of the Council Chief of Staff): Receive/review response from Councilmember re: govt. acct. email, follow-up, prepare/packaged/provide records/information to City Attorney for review.
1 person
1 hour @ $37/hour = $37 est.
5. Richmond Office of the City Attorney: Receive and review govt. email account records/information, provide response, follow-up/clarifications with RCCOCCOS.
1 person
1.25 hours @ $35/hour = $43.75 est.
6. RCCOCCOS (Richmond City Council Office of the Council Chief of Staff): Receive and review response from City Attorney regarding govt. acct. email records/information, follow-up/clarifications, prepare/package per City Attorney.
1 person
1 hour @ $37/hour = $37 est.
7. Councilmember: Searching non-govt. email account emails.
1 person
2 hour @ $24/hour (part-time 20 hours/week $25k) = $48 est.
8. Councilmember: Review non-govt. email acct. emails, follow-up/clarifications and prepare/package/provide responsive records/information to RCCOCCOS.
1 person
1 hour @ $24/hour (part-time 20 hours/week $25k) = $24 est.
9. RCCOCCOS (Richmond City Council Office of the Council Chief of Staff): Receive/review non-govt. acct. email records/information from Councilmember follow-up/clarifications, and prepare/packaged/provide to City Attorney for review.
1 person
1 hour @ $37/hour = $37 est.
10. Richmond Office of the City Attorney: Receive and review non-govt. email account records/information from RCCOCCOS and provide response and follow-up/clarifications with RCCOCCOS.
1 person
1.25 hours @ $35/hour = $43.75 est.
11. RCCOCCOS (Richmond City Council Office of the Council Chief of Staff): Receive and review response from City Attorney regarding non-govt. acct. emails, follow-up/clarifications, prepare/package per City Attorney.
1 person
1 hour @ $37/hour = $37 est.
12. RCCOCCOS (Richmond City Council Office of the Council Chief of Staff): Preparing/packaging/providing all records responsive records to requestor.
1 person
2 hour @ $37/hour = $74 est.
Total Estimate: $573 est.
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~WRD000
From: Shawn Breen
Thanks very much. Please allow me some time to review this cost estimate. I will let you know as soon as possible how to proceed with this request.
Kindly, Shawn Breen
From: Shawn Breen
Hello,
I have had some time to look over my requests, your office's responses, and the documents your office provided in response to my requests for processing notes for my original requests.
It appears as though your office has made an error, likely due to the confusing circumstance of my having submitted 3 requests at the same time.
It appears as though your office asked the Department of Information and Technology to assist in doing a cursory search for documents and in helping provide a cost estimate.
In looking over the two separate sets of documents your office provided in response to my requests for processing notes, both sets of notes are identical. I downloaded them all in order, labelled them, and opened them side-by-side and compared them, and they are a 100 percent identical match/copy of one another. They both show that there were 26,425 potentially responsive documents. However, if you scroll through the email thread in your office's request to the Department of Information and Technology for assistance, it seems clear that this response was related to my request for all FOIA requests seeking information from Councilor Kim Gray. And while my request specifically asked for FOIA requests only, your office's request was a search of all emails including any attachments.
In summation, it appears as though the cost estimate you provided is not related to my specific request for emails containing the words "antifa" or "protest", but in response to my request seeking all FOIA's, and even then, the response is erroneous, because it is not searching the specific documents I requested.
Before I can decide how to proceed, I would need you to verify the information your office sent to me related to the respective cost estimates, to be sure that the identical $573 cost estimates are in fact related to my original specific requests. I do not believe that they are. It is highly improbable that both searches for a specific word yielded identical results.
I will link both original requests below.
If you could provide new, corrected cost estimates (if needed, you may find that there are so few or no documents to provide) to the above requests, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks very kindly,
Shawn Breen
From: Shawn Breen
Just following up on this request to see what the status is.
Thanks very much,
Shawn Breen
From:
Shawn Breen – The estimate should be correct – Per details provided, database of all emails would need to be created and then searched accordingly - so estimates should be the same – Hope that is helpful - steve
-
~WRD211
From: Shawn Breen
Hello,
Sorry for all of the follow-ups. I just want to be sure that this estimate is not un-necessarily inflated.
I just want to clarify that this "database" search is for one account correct? Kim Gray's? I am only seeking emails containing a single word "antifa", sent to or received by Kim Gray. It is not even remotely believable that it would cost the amount of money you have specified to search a single email account for a single word between a specific timeframe.
I am pretty familiar with how these database searches work. Is your office, or any office assisting you using Google Vault to perform this search? Iif so, there is absolutely no way this estimate is correct.
If you could confirm:
1) the database search is for a single account
2) the database search is for a single word
3) the timeframe of the search has been limited to the timeframe specified in the request
In the event that you find that this search is being performed with the parameters my request specifies and that the estimate is accurate, I would like to attempt to negotiate a reduced scope of my request with you. A reduced scope should save you time and me money.
Thanks very kindly,
Shawn Breen
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Virginia Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 28, 2020. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From:
Shawn Breen – Happy to assist. To confirm, this was efforted conscientiously on your behalf to be responsive to your request as provided for Councilmember Kim Gray emails, during the timeframe, and for word provided. Please reference the itemized estimate and information provided regarding the details and process identified regarding your request and please let me know if you would wish to clarify and/or reduce/refine the scope of your request. Hey also, I’m not sure I recognize some of the text provided below as having been received previously but hope this is helpful regarding. In hoping to help further assist, was there a specific record you were wishing that you could identify or describe in hopes that maybe that could further assist in narrowing searching and possibly reducing the cost on your behalf? - steve
-
~WRD000
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Virginia Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 28, 2020. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Virginia Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 28, 2020. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Virginia Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 28, 2020. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Virginia Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 28, 2020. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Virginia Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 28, 2020. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.