FOIA March Madness 2018 - Agency Talking Points (November 8, 2016 - March 13, 2018) (Department of Energy)
| Tracking # |
HQ-2018-00807-F |
| Multi Request | FOIA March Madness 2018 - Agency Talking Points (November 8, 2016 - March 13, 2018) |
| Submitted | March 13, 2018 |
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Communications
From: Beryl Lipton
To Whom It May Concern:
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:
For the 16-month, 5-day period from Tuesday, November 8, 2016 through Tuesday, March 13, 2018:
(SUMMARY)
Any and all talking points and similar memorandums, emails, and transcripts providing advice or direction on how to handle the media, media interviews, and statements.
----
(SPECIFICALLY)
Please include in your responsive materials any documents, emails, or communications with the following phrases in the title or subject line:
TALKING POINTS
STMT
STATEMENT
PRESS STRATEGY
___________
It would be greatly appreciated if materials could be provided on a rolling basis.
1. In the Office of Public Affairs or equivalent division
Please provide first all such materials produced in this agency’s Office of Public Affairs or equivalent division, and any representative thereof.
Please also provide all such materials received by this agency’s Office of Public Affairs or equivalent division, and any representative thereof.
2. Related to all agency employees
Please also include all employee email communications containing the following phrases:
TALKING POINTS
STMT
STATEMENT
PRESS STRATEGY
Alternative Response to 2:
If processing of this portion of this request would require its distribution to another or multiple other offices, it would be greatly appreciated if a response to this request would contain a description of the necessary offices to be tasked, the process by which the search will be conducted, and an estimate of the time and fees to be incurred. Such a description will allow us to better understand the parameters of this FOIA office’s ability to respond to this request as worded and will better enable us to reorganize and limit it as appropriate.
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Additional clarification:
This request is not intended for materials regarding one particular subject or event during this period.
If a different search procedure will be required dependent on segment of time covered, it would be greatly appreciated if a response could contain a description of the necessary difference in approach by time period (for example, if file keeping procedures have changed at some point in the last year and a half or if particular materials have been moved to another location).
_________
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 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Beryl Lipton
From:
Good Afternoon Ms. Lipton:
Attached to this email is an acknowledgement letter for your DOE FOIA request HQ-2018-00807-F.
Regards,
Brian Yanos, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Central Research, Inc. Contractor
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20585
(202)586-4933
From:
Good Afternoon Ms. Lipton,
Our office has received your request for HQ-2018-00807-F and are currently assigning it to the Office of Public Affairs (PA) for a search as noted in item 1 of your request. Below is a list of names in PA that we suggest searching:
Sarah Habansky
Shaylyn Hynes
Jessica Szymanski
Lindsey Geisler
Bob Haus
William Turenne
Please confirm that you would like to amend your request to a search of the above names or we may discuss further.
As for item 2, it is directed to all agency employees. Please let me know if there is another program office you would like our office to search or if you would be satisfied with searching only PA.
Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions and I look forward to assisting you with this matter.
Regards
Brian Yanos, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Central Research, Inc. Contractor
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20585
(202)586-4933
From:
Good Morning Ms. Lipton:
Attached to this email is an interim response letter for your DOE request HQ-2018-00807-F.
Regards,
Brian Yanos, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Central Research, Inc. Contractor
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20585
(202)586-4933
From:
Ms. Lipton,
I am following up on the below email. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to discuss.
Brian
From: Beryl Lipton
Hi Brian,
Thank you so much for your messages. I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. Would it be possible to get an estimate for what an agency-wide search would take? Also, could you please clarify the rationale behind the chosen names? I'd be happy to limit part one of the search, but I'd like to have a sense of what would be excluded.
Thanks so much for your time and help.
Best,
Beryl
From: Beryl Lipton
Hi Brian,
Thank you so much for your messages. I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. Would it be possible to get an estimate for what an agency-wide search would take? Also, could you please clarify the rationale behind the chosen names? I'd be happy to limit part one of the search, but I'd like to have a sense of what would be excluded.
Thanks so much for your time and help.
Best,
Beryl
From: Beryl Lipton
Hi Brian,
Thanks so much for your help. Let me know if you'd like to discuss the limitations of this request.
Best,
Beryl
From:
Hi Beryl,
Our office has been conducting research in response to your request. Would there be a time either on Thursday or Friday of this week that we may discuss?
Thanks
Brian
From: Beryl Lipton
Hi Brian,
I should be available today or tomorrow. Feel free to give me a call in the office: 617-299-1832.
Thanks so much for your help.
Best wishes,
Beryl
From: Beryl Lipton
Hi Brian,
I should be available today or tomorrow. Feel free to give me a call in the office: 617-299-1832.
Thanks so much for your help.
Best wishes,
Beryl
From:
Good Afternoon Beryl,
Thank you for speaking with Melissa and I on the phone. Per our discussion, this is to confirm that you have agreed to amend part one of your request to a search of the custodians in the Office of Public Affairs (PA) as follows:
Sarah Habansky
Shaylyn Hynes
Jessica Szymanski
Lindsey Geisler
Bob Haus
William Turenne
As discussed, these are the individuals in PA most likely to have records responsive to your request.
For part two of your request, we discussed the limitations of conducting an agency-wide search and that the thousands of individuals to be searched would be difficult and time-consuming and most likely not lead to the responsive records you are seeking.
As also discussed, you have agreed to receive a directive from the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence (IN) as attached to this email. Please note that you are accepting this document as previously released and therefore do not have appeal rights to this document.
Here is a link to the most current DOE organizational chart:
https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/12/f46/DOE-ORG-CHART-December-2017-revised.pdf
Additionally, we wanted to provide you with the link to DOE’s Directives website which contains additional publicly available information that may be of interest.
https://www.directives.doe.gov/directives-browse#c10=&b_start=0
Please let me know how you would like to proceed with part two of your request. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out and we may discuss further.
Regards,
Brian Yanos, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Central Research, Inc. Contractor
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20585
(202)586-4933
From: Beryl Lipton
Hello Mr. Yanos,
Thank you so much for your help thus far. In lieu of part 2 of this request, would it be possible to receive an estimate of the number of employees in the Department of Energy, an estimate of the costs to complete the request as written, and the number of requests that would be ahead of this one were it to be moved to the "Exceptional/voluminous" processing track?
Thanks so much for your help.
Best wishes,
Beryl
From:
Hi Beryl,
For the information you are requesting, in lieu of part 2 of your request, I recommend amending that portion of your request to the following:
1. An estimate of the number of employees at DOE.
2. The number of open DOE FOIA requests filed before HQ-2018-00807-F.
In regards to an estimate of the costs to complete the request as written, I have included links referring to the CFR. https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2011-title10-vol4/pdf/CFR-2011-title10-vol4-sec1004-9.pdf
You have been categorized as “news media” and therefore you will not be charged for the processing of this request.
Please confirm the aforementioned amendment or let me know if you would like to discuss further.
Thanks
Brian
From:
Hi Beryl,
I am following up on the below email in regards to amending the second part of your request. Please confirm the amendment or let me know how you would like to proceed with this second part so that we may discuss.
Thanks
Brian
From:
Hi Beryl,
Thank you for speaking with me on the phone. Per our discussion, you have agreed to amend the first part of your request to limit the search to Bob Haus with emails to include only the fields: From, Sent, To, Cc, Subject, and Attachments. The Body and attachments to emails will be considered non-responsive. You have also agreed to waive subscription based newsletters.
For the second part of your request, you agreed to the following:
1. An estimate of the number of employees at DOE.
2. The number of open DOE FOIA requests filed before HQ-2018-00807-F.
Please confirm the aforementioned amendment or let me know if you would like to discuss further.
Thanks
Brian
From:
Hi Beryl,
I am following up on a voicemail I left you today. If you could please give me a call or let me know when you are available to discuss this request, that would be greatly appreciated. I can be reached at 202-586-4933.
Thanks
Brian
From: Beryl Lipton
Brian,
I apologize for having missed your call; I'll be in the office today, if you'd like to try again. The amendments you memorialized in your penultimate message seem perfect, and I hope you'll excuse the delay in confirming that that's so.
Hope you're well and that you have a lovely weekend.
Best wishes,
Beryl
From:
Hi Beryl,
Thanks for following up. For clarification on the second part of your amendment, you agreed to a report from DOE HQ’s FOIA tracking software for the number of open FOIA requests filed before HQ-2018-00807-F. You also agreed to waive all information except for the total number of requests.
Lastly, you agreed to a record of the number of federal employees currently working at DOE.
Please confirm the aforementioned amendment or we may discuss further.
Thanks
Brian
From: Beryl Lipton
Hi Brian!
Thank you so much for this and apologies for the delay. These amendments seem perfect.
Have a lovely week!
Beryl
From:
Hi Beryl,
I just left a voicemail regarding this request. If you could please give me call, that would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Brian
From:
Good Afternoon Ms. Lipton:
Attached to this email is a response letter and responsive documents from DOE HQ for your DOE FOIA request HQ-2018-00807-F.
Per our conversation on September 28, 2018, you agreed to close out your request without OIG's response. Therefore, this email will serve as a final response and we will proceed to close out your request.
Regards,
Brian Yanos, Esq.
FOIA Analyst
Central Research, Inc. Contractor
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20585
(202)586-4933
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