Communication with Unified Port of San Diego on Lane Field

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the California's Sunshine Amendment (Cal. Const. Art. I, § 3(b)), I hereby request the following records:

Any and all communication from January 1, 2009 to the present between or among any employee, consultant or anyone acting of behalf of the Unified Port of San Diego and any persons from Lankford & Assocaites, Lane Field Development LLC and/or Lane Field Developers LLC. Specifically, this request seeks those communications that mentions or refer to the proposed Lane Field development.

In this request, any and all communication includes but is not limited to emails, letters, faxes, records of meetings--including but not limited to calendar items, meeting minutes and notes.

I ask that you please provide the records in their original electronic format. 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 commitment to an open and transparent government process. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Brooke Williams

Hi, Ms. Holder,

I hope you are well. Thank you for your quick response. Is it possible to search by domain name? If so, I will try to provide as many as possible. The Lane Field limited liability companies are not required to publicly list names of executives and partners, so I'm unable to provide a comprehensive list unfortunately.

However, perhaps the best place to start would be someone who manages the project for the Port? Perhaps there is a document that has a list of names of people from these firms that are involved--maybe the project manager would know where to find such a list specifically? That might be a good place to start.

In the meantime, here are a few (not all) of the individuals for which I am requesting communication. I've included their full names and middle initials, but I am not sure how their email and fax systems are configured, so please do not limit the search to these variations in particular.

Robert V. Lankford
Robert A. Henry ("Bob Henry")
Mary D. Pampuch
Samuel "Eric" Smith
Alex Guyott (aguyott@henselphelps.com)

Thank you,
Brooke

Thank you, Ms. Holder. I look forward to receiving the responsive records.

Brooke

Thank you, Ms. Holder. I appreciate it. I am in Washington, D.C. at the moment and traveling to Boston this evening. Would it be possible to provide the documents via email? Or snail mail? Please let me know. And thanks again for all of your help.

Brooke

Thank you, Ms. Holder. I appreciate it.

Approximately how many of the 3,481 records did you print out as part of my request?

From what I understand, many of the responsive records are emails, so their original format would be electronic. As I included in my original request, I am asking per the California Public Records Act that you please provide responsive records in their original electronic format.

Please don't hesitate to call me at 202-615-3551 if you'd like to discuss the format of responsive, electronic records. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks again,
Brooke

Dear Ms. Holder,

Thank you for providing a copy of the Port's policy on public records. Could you please also provide the specific portion of the law the Port is relying on in printing out 3,481 pages of electronic, responsive public records and denying my request to please provide them in their original, electronic format?

Please see California Government Code § 6253.9, which states:

“(a) Unless otherwise prohibited by law, any agency that has information that constitutes an identifiable public record not exempt from disclosure pursuant to this chapter that is in an electronic format shall make that information available in an electronic format when requested by any person and, when applicable, shall comply with the following:
(1) The agency shall make the information available in any electronic format in which it holds the information.
(2) Each agency shall provide a copy of an electronic record in the format requested if the requested format is one that has been used by the agency to create copies for its own use or for provision to other agencies. The cost of duplication shall be limited to the direct cost of producing a copy of a record in an electronic format.”

Please also note that the California Public Records Act permits an agency to charge for “direct costs of duplication” but not the cost of staff time to search, review and redact the records.

In response to similar requests for public records I filed with the Port on July 27, 2012 and August 29, 2012, you provided me with copies of responsive records--including many emails--on a CD and charged me a total of $5 for the cost of the CD. What has changed?

I look forward to hearing from you. Again, please feel free to call me.

Thank you,
Brooke

Brooke Williams
Reporter
202-615-3551

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Feb. 18, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

Hi, Ms. Holder,

Would you have time to talk tomorrow (May 20) regarding this request? I'm at 202-615-3551.

Thank you,
Brooke