June 27, 2001; Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning
6/27/2001 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 May 7, 2001, IPA received a letter from Kevin Pachl. In this letter, Mr. Pachl asked the Commissioner to issue an advisory opinion regarding his right to gain access to certain data maintained by the Minnesota Department of Children, Families Learning (CFL.) In response to Mr. Pachl's request, IPA, on behalf of the Commissioner, wrote to Christine Jax, Commissioner of CFL. The purposes of this letter, dated May 23, 2001, were to inform her of Mr. Pachl's request and to ask her to provide information or support for CFL's position. On June 8, 2001, IPA received a response from Kenneth W. Hasledalen, Assistant Commissioner and CIO for CFL. A summary of the facts of this matter follows. In a letter dated April 6, 2001, Mr. Pachl wrote to Commissioner Jax and asked to inspect certain public data. As of the date of his opinion request, CFL had not responded. In his response to the Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner Hasledalen wrote: A check of the records confirms that CFL did receive Mr. Pachl's letter via facsimile on April 6, 2001. Mr. Pachl's letter was forwarded to one division of CFL, then forwarded to a second CFL division. Unfortunately, this April 6th letter was inadvertently misplaced due to confusion of receiving multiple data requests from Mr. Pachl at the same time. CFL was not aware that it had failed to respond to this specific letter until it received [notice of his opinion request] on May 30, 2001. Assistant Commissioner Hasledalen stated that CFL has now responded to Mr. Pachl, and that: [i]n order to avoid this problem in the future, the Department has taken the following action: The Department will be coordinating any requests pursuant to the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act through the Data Practices Compliance Official. Issue:In his request for an opinion, Mr. Pachl asked the Commissioner to address the following issue:
Discussion:Pursuant to Minnesota Statutes, section 13.03, subdivision 3, when an individual makes a request for public data of which s/he is not the subject, the government entity is required to respond in a prompt and appropriate manner. Minnesota Rules, part 1205.0300, provides further guidance and states that the response must be made within a reasonable time. CFL acknowledges that it did not respond appropriately to Mr. Pachl's request, and that it has taken steps to ensure that such a situation will not recur. Opinion:Based on the facts and information provided, my opinion on the issue raised by Mr. Pachl is as follows:
Signed: David F. Fisher
Dated: June 27, 2001 |
