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July 16, 1996; Minnesota State Board of Investment
7/16/1996 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 citizen who requested this opinion and the response from the government entity with which the citizen disagrees are presented in summary form. Copies of the complete submissions are on file at the offices of PIPA and, with the exception of any data classified as not public, are available for public access.On May 28, 1996, PIPA received a faxed letter requesting this opinion from Michael J. Ravnitzky. In that letter, Mr. Ravnitzky described his attempts to gain access to certain data maintained by the Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI). In response to Mr. Ravnitzky's request, PIPA, on behalf of the Commissioner, wrote to Howard J. Bicker, Executive Director of SBI. The purposes of this letter, dated May 29, 1996, were to inform Mr. Bicker of Mr. Ravnitzky's request, to ask him to provide information or support for the Board's position, and to inform him of the date by which the Commissioner was required to issue this opinion. On June 7, 1996, PIPA received a response from Mr. Bicker. A summary of the detailed facts of this matter follows. According to Mr. Ravnitzky, on May 24, 1996, he made a verbal request of Mr. Bicker (and another SBI staff member) for the list of individuals or organizations . . . who are notified of upcoming Board and/or Committee meetings by the sending of an agenda in advance of the meeting. Mr. Ravnitzky wrote that Mr. Bicker, in response, verbally denied my request for this record on the grounds that this was personal information. In his response to the Commissioner, Mr. Bicker stated: [w]hile it is not clear from Mr. Ravnitzky's letter . . . I assume that his request for an advisory opinion relates to the Proxy Committee of the [SBI]. Mr. Ravnitzky has appeared before this Committee twice within the last year and it was the Proxy Committee that was the subject of our phone conversation on May 24, 1996. Mr. Bicker stated that in his telephone conversation with Mr. Ravnitzky on May 24, 1996, Mr. Ravnitzky . . . asked me who was on the mailing list for the Proxy Committee. While I declined to give him any personal information on the list, I read the list of names to him over the phone. In his response to the Commissioner, Mr. Bicker enclosed copies of a letter from him to Mr. Ravnitzky, dated May 30, 1996, and its enclosures. Mr. Bicker stated: [y]ou will note that one of the attachments to the letter is a copy of the mailing list that was used for the May 23, 1996 Proxy Committee meeting. The information I questioned during my phone conversation with Mr. Ravnitzky on May 24, 1996 was deleted from the list before it was mailed to him. Mr. Bicker offered no explanation of his basis for deleting information from the mailing list.
Issue:
In his request for an opinion, Mr. Ravnitzky asked the Commissioner to address the following issue:
Discussion:
Pursuant to Minnesota Statutes Section 13.02, subdivision 17, the State Board of Investment is a state agency subject to regulation under Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13, the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. Pursuant to Section 13.02, subdivision 7, government data are defined as all data collected, created, received, maintained or disseminated by any state agency . . . .
Section 13.03, subdivision 1, provides that government data are presumed to be public, and therefore accessible by anyone, unless classified as not public by statute, temporary classification (pursuant to Section 13.06), or federal law or rule. Section 13.03, subdivision 3, provides that when data are classified as not public, the responsible authority must so inform the person requesting access to the data, and must cite the specific legal basis for the not public classification. The Commissioner was not provided any information which indicates that there is a statute, temporary classification, or federal law or rule which classifies the data requested by Mr. Ravnitzky as not public. Mr. Bicker stated that he had deleted some of the personal information from the Proxy Committee mailing list before making it available to Mr. Ravnitzky, but he did not specify the nature of the personal information, or what legal basis he relied upon to determine the data he deleted are not public. Therefore, the Commissioner cannot determine whether that information was properly withheld from Mr. Ravnitzky. However, Mr. Bicker has a statutory obligation, when responding to a request for access to public data, to cite the specific legal basis for denying access to any of the data requested. Further, in his response to the Commissioner, Mr. Bicker referred to two separate mailing lists for notices of Board and Proxy Committee meetings. Mr. Ravnitzky stated that he requested access to the SBI's . . . list of individuals or organizations . . . who are notified of upcoming Board and/or Committeemeetings. . . . (Emphasis added.) Mr. Bicker, in his response, said that he had provided Mr. Ravnitzky with a portion of the information contained on the Proxy Committeemailing list. There appears to be some misunderstanding between Mr. Ravnitzky and Mr. Bicker with regard to the scope of Mr. Ravnitzky's request. Mr. Ravnitzky requested access to both Board and Committee meeting lists. Mr. Bicker apparently has not provided Mr. Ravnitzky with access to the Board meeting notice mailing list. It may be the case that Mr. Ravnitzky, in Mr. Bicker's opinion, has not yet requested from him access to the Board (and any other Board committee) meeting notice mailing list. If so, Mr. Ravnitzky needs to make that request, and upon his request, Mr. Ravnitzky is entitled to gain access to all of the public information on that list. Opinion:Based on the correspondence in this matter, my opinion on the issue raised by Mr. Ravnitzky is as follows:
Signed:
Elaine S. Hansen
Dated: July 16, 1996
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