November 17, 2000; City of Deephaven
11/17/2000 10:14:43 AM
This is an opinion of the Commissioner of Administration issued pursuant to section 13.072 of Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13 - the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. It is based on the facts and information available to the Commissioner as described below.
Facts and Procedural History:For purposes of simplification, the information presented by the person who requested this opinion and the response from the government entity with which the person disagrees are presented in summary form. Copies of the complete submissions are on file at the offices of IPA and, except for any data classified as not public, are available for public access.On September 26, 2000, IPA received a letter from John Musgjerd. In this letter, Mr. Musgjerd asked the Commissioner to issue an advisory opinion regarding his right to gain access to certain data maintained by the City of Deephaven. Mr. Musgjerd's request required clarification with IPA staff. In response to Mr. Musgjerd's request, IPA, on behalf of the Commissioner, wrote to Robert J. Larson, Administrator of the City. The purposes of this letter, dated October 3, 2000, were to inform him of Mr. Musgjerd's request and to ask him to provide information or support for the City's position. On October 17, 2000, IPA received a response from Mr. Larson. A summary of the facts of this matter follows. In a letter dated September 11, 2000, Mr. Musgjerd wrote to Mr. Larson asking to inspect public information associated with services charged to the City of Greenwood under the contract between the two cities. Will you advise me as to the date(s) that I will be allowed to inspect the data? According to Mr. Musgjerd, as of October 2, 2000, Deephaven had not responded to his request. In his response to the Commissioner, Mr. Larson wrote:Upon receiving Mr. Musgjerd's September 11, 2000 letter, I personally attempted to contact him via telephone on three separate occasions to request that he arrange a time to review the information in question. The most recent date that I attempted to contact him was Friday, October 6, 2000. On all three occasions his telephone voice-mail system activated, at which point I left a detailed message stating the purpose of my call and how he could contact me. Unfortunately, Mr. Musgjerd failed to return any of my calls.
Issue:
In his request for an opinion, Mr. Musgjerd asked the Commissioner to address the following issue:
Discussion:
Pursuant to Minnesota Statutes, section 13.03, and Minnesota Rules, part 1205.0300, subpart 3, government entities must respond to requests for access to public data in a prompt manner, and within a reasonable time. According to Mr. Musgjerd, the City did not respond at all to his request. According to Mr. Larson, he left three telephone messages for Mr. Musgjerd to arrange a time for Mr. Musgjerd to inspect the data, to which messages Mr. Musgjerd did not respond.
It is not possible for the Commissioner to determine whose version is correct. Both parties need to make reasonable efforts to satisfy their respective responsibilities and rights under the statute. If the City has not done so, it needs to provide Mr. Musgjerd the opportunity to inspect the data he requested. If Mr. Musgjerd has not responded to the City's invitation to arrange a time to inspect the data, he should do so.
In general, however, we note that the most reasonable method of attempting a response to an inquiry is to use the same communication medium as the inquiry. For instance, a written, mailed request for information, as used in this case, would reasonably have been answered by a written, mailed response.
The City of Deephaven provides a variety of services under contract to the City of Greenwood, including providing public access to government data. We are aware of considerable controversy about public access to City of Greenwood data, in light of the number of advisory opinions we have issued that involve Deephaven and Greenwood. (See Advisory Opinions 00-030, 00-028, 00-026, 00-021 and 00-015.) Given that controversy, it would have been helpful in this situation if the City of Deephaven had documented its attempts to contact Mr. Musgjerd in writing. Clear and documented dialogue by the parties to this controversy is essential if the ongoing disputes over access to data at the City of Greenwood are to ever be resolved.
Opinion:Based on the facts and information provided, my opinion on the issue raised by Mr. Musgjerd is as follows:
Signed:
David F. Fisher
Dated: November 17, 2000 |
Response to data requests
Method of response
