Smith Brendan Comms

Mr. Tobias,

This email is in response to your September 10, 2018 FOIA, in which you requested:

" Any and all written or electronic communications, including attachments, between NPS official P. Daniel Smith (or his immediate deputies or executive staff) and former Montana state senator John Brenden. This request seeks documents produced between January 1, 2018 and the date this request is processed."

Your request has been assigned tracking number NPS-2018-01252. All future correspondence relating to this request should reference this tracking number.

We have worked with staff in the Director's Office regarding your request and a search of our files located no records responsive to your request. Should you consider this NO RECORDS response to be a denial of your request, you have the right to 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

Your appeal must be received no later than 90 workdays after the date of this final response. 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, along with any information you have which leads you to believe the records are available, including where they might be found, if the location is known to you. Please note, appeals received after 5 p.m. EST will be considered to have been received as of the following day.

Also as part of the 2007 OPEN Government Act FOIA amendments, the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) was created to offer mediation services to resolve disputes between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies as a nonexclusive alternative to litigation. Using OGIS services does not affect your right to pursue litigation.

You may contact OGIS in any of the following ways:

Office of Government Information Services (OGIS)
National Archives and Records Administration
Room 2510
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001

E-mail: ogis@nara.gov
Phone: 301-837-1996
Fax: 301-837-0348
Toll-free: 1-877-684-6448

Additionally, because the National Park Service creates and maintains law enforcement records, we are required by the Department of Justice to provide the following information, even though it may or may not apply to your specific request. Congress excluded three discrete categories of law enforcement and national security records from the requirements of the FOIA. See 5 U.S.C. 552(c) (2006 & Supp. IV 2010). This response is limited to those records that are subject to the requirements of the FOIA. This is a standard notification that we are required to give all our requesters and should not be taken as an indication that excluded records do, or do not, exist.

We have classified you as a representative of the news media. As such, we may charge you for some of our duplication costs, but we will not charge you for our search or review costs; you also are entitled to up to 100 pages of photocopies (or an equivalent volume) for free. See 43 C.F.R. § 2.39. After taking into consideration your fee category entitlements, our processing costs are less than $50.00, therefore we will not bill you because the cost of collection would be greater than the fee collected. See 43 C.F.R. § 2.37(g)

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any further questions or concerns. You are also welcome to contact the NPS FOIA Liaison, Dr. Charis Wilson. She can be by phone at 303-969-2959 or via e-mail at charis_wilson@nps.gov.

Sincerely,

Jessica McHugh
WASO FOIA Liaison
202-354-1449
waso_foia_requests@nps.gov

Mr. Tobias,

This email is in response to your September 10, 2018 FOIA, in which you
requested:

*" Any and all written or electronic communications, including attachments,
between NPS official P. Daniel Smith (or his immediate deputies or
executive staff) and former Montana state senator John Brenden. This
request seeks documents produced between January 1, 2018 and the date this
request is processed." *

Your request has been assigned tracking number NPS-2018-01252. All future
correspondence relating to this request should reference this tracking
number.

We have worked with staff in the Director's Office regarding your request
and a search of our files located no records responsive to your request.
Should you consider this NO RECORDS response to be a denial of your
request, you have the right to 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

Your appeal must be received no later than 90 workdays after the date of
this final response. 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, along with any information you have
which leads you to believe the records are available, including where they
might be found, if the location is known to you. Please note, appeals
received after 5 p.m. EST will be considered to have been received as of
the following day.

Also as part of the 2007 OPEN Government Act FOIA amendments, the Office of
Government Information Services (OGIS) was created to offer mediation
services to resolve disputes between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies
as a nonexclusive alternative to litigation. Using OGIS services does not
affect your right to pursue litigation.

You may contact OGIS in any of the following ways:

Office of Government Information Services (OGIS)
National Archives and Records Administration
Room 2510
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001

E-mail: ogis@nara.gov
Phone: 301-837-1996
Fax: 301-837-0348
Toll-free: 1-877-684-6448

Additionally, because the National Park Service creates and maintains law
enforcement records, we are required by the Department of Justice to
provide the following information, even though it may or may not apply to
your specific request. Congress excluded three discrete categories of law
enforcement and national security records from the requirements of the
FOIA. See 5 U.S.C. 552(c) (2006 & Supp. IV 2010). This response is limited
to those records that are subject to the requirements of the FOIA. This is
a standard notification that we are required to give all our requesters and
should not be taken as an indication that excluded records do, or do not,
exist.

We have classified you as a representative of the news media. As such, we
may charge you for some of our duplication costs, but we will not charge
you for our search or review costs; you also are entitled to up to 100
pages of photocopies (or an equivalent volume) for free. See 43 C.F.R. §
2.39. After taking into consideration your fee category entitlements, our
processing costs are less than $50.00, therefore we will not bill you
because the cost of collection would be greater than the fee collected.
See 43 C.F.R. § 2.37(g)

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any further questions or
concerns. You are also welcome to contact the NPS FOIA Liaison, Dr. Charis
Wilson. She can be by phone at 303-969-2959 or via e-mail at
charis_wilson@nps.gov.

Sincerely,

Jessica McHugh
WASO FOIA Liaison
202-354-1449
waso_foia_requests@nps.gov

Mr. Tobias,

As noted in our response to NPS-2018-01252 there were *no records* *located*
during the search. Accordingly, we have no records to provide you for this
request. If you feel that our no records response was in error you have the
right to file an appeal in accordance with the instructions provided in our
previous response, a copy of which is provided for your reference.

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>