ERAP California

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the California Public Records Act, on behalf of the Center for Public Integrity and myself, jointly, I request that you provide us copies of the records identified and described below which pertain to the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). This request is regarding compliance reports filed for both ERA1 and ERA2. For further information about ERAP, please see: https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/coronavirus/assistance-for-state-local-and-tribal-governments/emergency-rental-assistance-program) .

The records we are seeking are as follows:

• All databases or similar electronic copies containing Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) quarterly and monthly compliance reports submitted by your agency, as a recipient of ERAP funding, to the Treasury Department from the first required report in the program’s history (on or about January 1, 2021) through the calendar quarter completed September 30, 2021.
• All databases or similar electronic copies including, but not be limited to, all of the fields described in the data dictionary available at this link (https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/ERARecipientDataDictionary.pdf) as well as any previous or subsequent data dictionaries describing previous or updated ERAP reporting requirements, that contains data reported by your agency as an ERAP recipient from the program’s inception through the calendar quarter completed September 30, 2021.
• A database or similar electronic copy that includes all data that your agency, as an ERAP recipient, uploaded to the Treasury Portal referenced in this PDF document (https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/ERA-Reporting-Guidance-v2.pdf) between the first required reporting period and the calendar quarter completed September 30, 2021. This should include, but not be limited to, the following components referenced in the aforementioned PDF document:
o Recipient Profile
o Projects
o Demographics
o Participant Household Payment Data File
o Performance and Financial Report
o Certification
o Module B: Projects. This module includes "details on subrecipients (recipients of subawards, contracts, and direct payments) that received payments of ERA funds as well as amounts of ERA funds obligated and expended in the reporting period," where a subrecipient is defined as "any entity or individual to which an ERA recipient issues a contract, subaward, or direct payment" and direct payments are defined as "payments issued by the ERA recipient to a household/tenant, landlord, utility provider, or vendors for other related housing expenses (e.g., for internet services and hotel stays)."

Format: we prefer to receive records in the following formats, listed in order of preference:
(1) a spreadsheet format such as an Excel file, tab-delimited file or similar;
(2) word processing file, text-based PDF, or similar;
(3) other non-proprietary electronic format;
(4) paper copies.

Please also provide any and all documentation related to such electronic records, including but not limited to data dictionaries, database documentation, record layouts, code sheets, data entry instructions, and similar printed or electronic documentation materials.

We specifically request all portions of any record responsive to the description above; in a database or spreadsheet, we request all data fields associated with responsive records. If you withhold any record or any portion of a record as exempt, we specifically request the release of all segregable non-exempt portions, including but not limited to email header information (e.g., sender, recipients, date, subject) and analogous information in non-email documents.

If you withhold any record or portion of a record, please specify which statutory exemptions are claimed for each withholding. Please separately state how disclosure would harm an interest protected by the cited exemption. Please describe each record withheld, including its date and size (e.g., number of pages or number of database entries).

Request for fee reduction as a representative of the news media

The Center for Public Integrity is a news media organization, and therefore this request should be exempt from all fees for search and review. This request is being made in connection with Public Integrity’s newsgathering functions and not for any other commercial purpose. Public Integrity intends to produce one or more original investigative reports based on analysis of the requested information. Public Integrity’s work has won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014 and 2017 and numerous other journalism awards (see http://www.publicintegrity.org/about/our-work/awards).

The only federal court to consider the issue has held that Public Integrity “is entitled to treatment as a representative of the news media for purposes of FOIA.” Center for Public Integrity v. HHS, Civil Case No. 06-1818, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56172 (D.D.C. Aug. 3, 2007), https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2006cv1818-15. In addition, our reporters covering Congress and congressional committees are credentialed by the Standing Committee of Correspondents of the Congressional Daily Press Gallery.

We expect that duplication fees for producing electronic records will be minimal. If there are processing fees greater than $25, inform me before you fill the request, and I will provide additional information in support of a public interest fee waiver.

Please feel free to contact me about any aspect of this request. In principle, Public Integrity is willing to consider ways in which the request might reasonably be narrowed.

Thank you for your attention to this request.

Sincerely,

Amy DiPierro
Center for Public Integrity
910 17th Street N.W., Suite 1030
Washington, DC 20006-2606
(408) 634-2452‬