Automatic vehicle location database (Department of Parks and Recreation)
| Submitted | July 10, 2013 |
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Communications
From: Phil Mocek
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to RCW Ch. 42.56 (Public Records Act), I hereby request the following records:
Full and complete database of automatic vehicle location (AVL) data in its native electronic format, with related metadata, including database schema.
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,
Phil Mocek
From: Hoff, Paula
Dear Mr. Mocek-
I am responding on behalf of Seattle Parks and Recreation to your July 10, 2013 public disclosure request. Unfortunately, your request ended up in my Spam inbox (junk mail), and I was just able to track it down today.
We only have one vehicle, our Drainage and Wastewater Sweeper truck, that has a Zonar tracking system. I will work with staff to identify any records held responsive to your request. I anticipate having any responsive documents available on or before August 6, 2013.
In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 10, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thank you for your help.
From: Hoff, Paula
Dear Mr. Mocek:
I am responding to your public disclosure request dated July 10, 2013, on behalf of Seattle Parks and Recreation.
In speaking with staff in regards to your request, it has been determined that Seattle Parks and Recreation does not maintain a database for our one Drainage and Wastewater Sweeter truck. Our AVL system is outsourced and the vendor retains all of the data for a year. We have not yet collected tracking data for this vehicle, and only accessed the system once to pull a very limited amount of information, which I can provide if you are interested. If you are seeking the full dataset with all of the vehicle data, then Parks will need to contact the vendor and determine what records have been maintained and what the fee would be for accessing and pulling these records. The requestor is responsible for payment and will need to provide a 10% deposit upfront before the vendor begins pulling this information. Please let me know how you would like to proceed.
From: Phil Mocek
RE: my public records request of July 10, 2013
Dear Ms. Hoff:
In this case, I'm mostly interested in what the data collected by various vendors' AVL systems looks like, what the capabilities of these systems are, etc. While I am concerned about the proliferation of private entities holding information that should be public record at ransom, at this time I do not request the full dataset you described. Could you please provide the limited information Parks has previously pulled along with related documentation provided by the vendor?
Cordially,
Phil Mocek
From: Hoff, Paula
Dear Mr. Mocek:
Attached is the data that we have pulled off of the Zonar system to date. We get the information that we need from the vendor off of their website at http://zonarsystems.net/ This is where we get information on how to access and utilize their services.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions.
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Export from Zonar