FOIA March Madness 2018 - Agency Talking Points (November 8, 2016 - March 13, 2018) (National Park Service)
| Tracking # |
NPS-2018-00542 |
| Multi Request | FOIA March Madness 2018 - Agency Talking Points (November 8, 2016 - March 13, 2018) |
| Submitted | March 13, 2018 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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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.
-----
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: National Park Service
Ms. Lipton,
Your request has been received and has been assigned tracking number
NPS-2018-00542. All future correspondence relating to this request should
reference this tracking number.
In accordance with 43 CFR 2.15
<http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=0fc3ab3499768eebc2e3691c8cf88dec&rgn=div5&view=text&node=43:1.1.1.1.2&idno=43#se43.1.2_115>
the
National Park Service processes requests on a first-in, first-out basis
within several processing tracks. Your request has been placed in the
normal track. There are currently 1 simple and 34 normal requests ahead of
this request in the processing queue. However, at this time there are
issues with the scope of your request, that will prevent us from continuing
to process it.
Regarding Item 1 of your request, for records held by the Office of Public
Affairs or equivalent division, a survey indicates that the volume of
potentially responsive records held by staff in the Office of
Communications will exceed the 100 free pages you are entitled to as a
member of the media as well as our $50 minimum threshold for assessing
fees. In accordance with 43 CFR 2.49, because you did not previously agree
to pay all fees associated with your request or specify an amount you are
willing to pay, we are required to provide you a notice of anticipated
fees. At this time we are estimating duplication fees for Item 1 of your
request to be $2,235. That amount was calculated as follows:
5,000 potentially responsive records
*x 3 pages / records*
15,000 potentially responsive pages
*-100 free pages*
14,900 pages
*$0.15/page*
$2,235 Estimated duplication costs for Item 1
Please note, this is only an estimate, the actual amount could be less if
it turns out there are a high volume of duplicates within the search result
sets. For example, it is possible that multiple staff within the office of
communications may have been copied on email correspondence. However, we
will not be able to determine the exact volume until we conduct a search,
extract potentially responsive records, and identify duplicate records.
Additionally, because this amount exceeds $250 and we do not show you have
paid fees in the past we will be required to collect payment in advance for
the estimated copy charges before we can continue processing this part of
your request.
Regarding Item 2 of your request, our email system does not allow us to
conduct a global search of all NPS staff emails. Accordingly, as currently
written item 2 of your request would require that contact more than 20,000
NPS employees and contractors, in more than 400 NPS units, regional, and
field offices in order to request they conduct a search of their emails.
Given that we have no way to conduct a global search of our email we are
unable to even estimate the volume of records that might be potentially
responsive to this request. However, if we were to assume that even 1/10th
of NPS employees had at least one email that included the key words
specified in your request in the subject line, and that each of those
emails was 3 pages in length, then the duplication costs for this item
could exceed $900. Additionally, the time it would take to contact every
current NPS employee and contractor to request that they conduct a search
of their email and to collect and process responsive records, would mean
that the time to process this item of your request could take months.
Accordingly, we would need to reassign your request our exceptional and
voluminous processing track. If that were to happen, there would be 1
simple, 34 normal, 39 complex, and 9 exceptional and voluminous requests
ahead of your request in the processing queue.
Accordingly, I am contacting you to determine, if at this time, you would
like to reorganize or limit your request in order to reduce both processing
time and costs. Possible options include:
1. Limiting your search to records held by specific staff within the Office
of Communications, e.g. April Slayton, Assistant Director for
Communications, or Jeremy Barnum Chief of Public Affairs and Chief
Spokesperson, or regional offices, e.g. James Doyle, Chief of Intermountain
Region Communications and Legislation office.
2. Limiting your search to records that contain the specified keywords in
the subject line and other terms in the body of the document or email such
as water bottles or fee increases.
3. Limiting the time frame for your search, e.g. records created since
January 1, 2018.
4. Processing your request up to the 100 free page and $50 minimum fee
threshold, which would equate to 433 pages of responsive records.
5. A combination of some or all of the above.
Please feel free to contact me to discuss how you would like to proceed
with your request. In accordance with 43 CFR 2.5 and 2.51, if we do not
hear from you within 20 workdays we will presume you are no longer
interested in this matter and will close the file on your request.
Sincerely,
C.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
From: Beryl Lipton
Hello Ms. Wilson,
Thank you so much for your thorough response. I will reconsider the current wording of the request and get back to you later today.
Thanks so much for your help and patience.
Best wishes,
Beryl
From: Beryl Lipton
Ms. Wilson,
Would it be possible to get an estimate for the necessary search if this request were limited to Ms. Slayton, Mr. Barnum, and then the appropriate Chief of Communications at each of the following offices:
Alaska Regional Office
Intermountain Regional Office
Midwest Regional Office
National Capital Regional Office
Northeast Regional Office
Pacific West Regional Office
Southeast Regional Office
Thanks so much for your help and patience.
Best wishes,
Beryl
From: National Park Service
I will be out of the office on annual leave on March 23, 2018. I will respond to your message when I return on March 26th.
Sincerely,
C.
--
____________________ Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov (mailto:charis_wilson@nps.gov)
From: National Park Service
Ms. Lipton,
If we modify the scope of the request to records received within the
specified time frame by those nine individuals, for any messages with the
the following four search terms:
TALKING POINTS
STMT
STATEMENT
PRESS STRATEGY
Then we should be able to complete processing of your request without any
fees. Please let me know if you would like us to begin processing your
request based on that revised scope.
C.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
From: Muckrock Staff
Ms. Wilson,
That would be terrific. Do you happen to have some sort of organizational chart or other reference for the various divisions that I could use in the future?
Thanks so much for your time and help. I hope your vacation went well.
Best wishes,
Beryl
From: National Park Service
Ms. Lipton,
I have reached out to our public affairs folks and even with this narrowed
search scope we are still looking at a potentially voluminous amount of
material. Preliminary searches indicate that we could still have over
4,000 potentially responsive messages. At least one person experienced
difficulties with the tool our system uses to export emails, when he
attempted to extract his search results to send them to me.. Additionally,
if we assume that each message was only two pages, this would require us to
review more than 8,000 pages of responsive material, which would mean that
your request would need to be moved into the exceptional and voluminous
processing track
<https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=0fc3ab3499768eebc2e3691c8cf88dec&rgn=div5&view=text&node=43:1.1.1.1.2&idno=43#se43.1.2_115>,
with more than 80 requests ahead of it in the processing queue.
Part of the problem, is that the search terms you have requested are used
so frequently in the day-to-day operations of the public affairs functions
they are not particularly useful in narrowing a search scope. As one
person explained to me, it would be like trying to use the word FOIA in the
subject line to search for records in my email.
We have also identified some other potential issues. Some results sets
appear to include "out of office" messages. While other include contained
a significant number of messages that were meeting invites, replies and
calendar reminders, many of which would include conference call numbers and
passcodes all of which would require redaction. Additionally, for the term
statement we noticed that the preliminary results included messages that
related to the employee's credit or travel card statements and not to a
press release or other formal statement to the media.
Given these issues, I would like to discuss your request with you in the
hopes that we can refine the scope in such a way that we can locate,
extract, and process potentially responsive records for you within the
required 20-workday period. Some of the options that I was thinking might
help include:
1. For Jeremy Barnum and April Slayton limit the scope to messages they *sent
*to regional Public Information Officers (PIOs).
2. For regional PIOs limit results to messages they sent to April Slayton
or Jeremy Barnum in the Washington communications office.
3. Limit the scope to a sampling, e.g. 10 or 15 messages, from each of the
nine individuals.
4. Limit the scope to the email messages bodies, which would eliminate the
need to review and process attachments, with the understanding that you
could request copies of attachments after reviewing the emails.
5. Include additional search terms, e.g. "talking points" and "water
bottles" or "statement" and "shut down"
6. Others???
Unfortunately your request does not provide a phone number so I am unable
to contact you to discuss this. So please contact me at your earliest
convenience to discuss this further.
Sincerely,
C.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
From: National Park Service
Ms. Lipton,
I apologize I forgot to send you the link to the website that should have
our org chart on it.
https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/organizational-structure.htm I noticed when I
checked it just now that for some reason even though the text indicates
there should be a chart there, I did not actually see one. However, the
names of the various divisions and regions are listed.
I have sent a note to our web staff asking if we can update this page to
include a chart.
C.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
From: National Park Service
Ms. Lipton,
I wanted to let you know that I was advised that the "official" org chart
is available in the Department of the Interior Budget Justifications, which
is more commonly referred to as the Green Book
<https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/upload/FY2019-NPS-Budget-Justification.pdf>.
I found it on page 14.
Sincerely,
C.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
From: Beryl Lipton
Hello Ms. Wilson,
Thank you so much for your thorough explanation and the alternative searches that we might be able to conduct. I think the following restrictions would be great, and I think we could further restrict the timeframe to January 1, 2018 - March 13, 2018 for now.
- For Jeremy Barnum and April Slayton limit the scope to messages they *sent to regional Public Information Officers (PIOs).
- For regional PIOs limit results to messages they sent to April Slayton or Jeremy Barnum in the Washington communications office.
- Limit the scope to the email messages bodies, which would eliminate the need to review and process attachments, with the understanding that you could request copies of attachments after reviewing the emails.
Would these refinements help?
Thanks so much for your time.
Best wishes,
Beryl
From: National Park Service
I will be out of the office on official travel on from April 2 - April 6. I will will have limited access to email and will respond to emails as time allows. If you do not receive a response during that time, you should anticipate that I will respond to your message when I am back in the office on April 9, 2018.
Sincerely,
C.
--
____________________ Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov (mailto:charis_wilson@nps.gov)
From: National Park Service
Ms. Lipton,
Thank you for getting back to me. Based on the revised scope we are now
considering your request to be perfected. In accordance with 43 CFR 2.19, we
are notifying you that we have determined that we will need to extend the
basic 20 workday time limit, in order to respond to your request. We are
taking this ten-day extension due to the need to search for responsive
records in multiple offices.
We expect to issue our determination response to you by, to you by May 14,
2018. If you do not receive our response by that date, you may consider
your request administratively denied and may file an appeal. You may file
an appeal by writing to:
Freedom of Information Act Appeals Officer
Office of the Solicitor
U.S. Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
MS-6556-MIB,
Washington, D.C. 20240
foia.appeals@sol.doi.gov
The appeal should be marked, both on the envelope and the face of the
appeal letter, with the legend "FREEDOM OF INFORMATION APPEAL." Your appeal
should be accompanied by a copy of your original request and copies of all
correspondence between yourself and the National Park Service related to
this request. Please note appeals received after 5 p.m. EST will be
considered to have been received as of the following day.
Additionally, you have the right to limit the scope of your request so that
it may be processed within the time limit or an opportunity to arrange an
alternative time frame for processing the request. Please feel free to
contact me, both as the FOIA Liaison and the person who is processing your
request, to discuss the processing of your request.
You may also contact the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS)
at the National Archives and Records Administration to inquire about the
FOIA mediation services they offer. You can contact OGIS at:
Office of Government Information Services
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS
College Park, MD 20740-6001
ogis@nara.gov
1-877-684-6448
Fax: 202-741-5769.
Sincerely,
C.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
From: National Park Service
Ms. Lipton,
We are providing our first interim response to your request. Attached
please find one PDF file, totaling 22 pages of responsive material, which
are being released to you in full. We will continue to release additional
responsive records as they become available. In the meantime, please feel
free to contact me with any questions you may have.
Sincerely,
C.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
From: National Park Service
Ms. Lipton,
Please find attached to additional sets of responsive documents.
Additionally, the Public Information Officer (PIO) for the Alaska region
advised me that he had no records responsive to your modified request for
records between January 1, 2018, to March 13, 2018.
We are continuing to search for and review potentially responsive
documents. We will release these materials as they become available. In
the meantime, please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Sincerely,
C.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
From: National Park Service
Ms. Lipton,
Attached is our third interim response to your FOIA request. Please feel
free to contact me with any questions.
Sincerely,
C.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
From: National Park Service
Ms. Lipton,
Please find attached our fourth batch of records responsive to your
request. These materials are being released in full. I am working with
the last two people on my search list and hope to have their responses out
to you soon.
Sincerely,
C.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
From: National Park Service
Ms. Lipton,
I have learned that one of the people who has not yet returned their search
results for this FOIA request is now out on an extended leave of absence.
Before I try to determine what other means we have to try and obtain copies
of any potentially responsive records they may have, I wanted to follow up
with you to find out if you are still interested in this material. If we
do not hear from you within 20 workdays we will assume you are no longer
interested in this matter and will close the file on your request.
Sincerely,
C.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
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