October 8, 2004; City of Warren
10/8/2004 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:On September 1, 2004, IPAD received a letter dated August 30, 2004, from Elden Elseth. In his letter, Mr. Elseth asked the Commissioner to issue an advisory opinion regarding his access to certain data that the City of Warren maintains. In response to Mr. Elseth's request, IPAD, on behalf of the Commissioner, wrote to Robert Brooks, the City Clerk. The purposes of this letter, dated September 2, 2004, were to inform him of Mr. Elseth's request and to ask him to provide information or support for the City's position. On September 22, 2004, IPAD received a response, dated September 21, 2004, from Mr. Brooks. A summary of the facts as Mr. Elseth provided them is as follows. In a letter dated August 4, 2004, Mr. Elseth wrote to Mr. Brooks: I would request access for purposes of inspection all public data which the City of Warren has which would show the amounts of funding which have been guaranteed by the State of Minnesota (including the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources) and the Federal Government for the above flood project [the PL 83-566 flood reduction project for the Warren, MN area]. I would also request for purposes of inspection documentation showing the amount of funds which will be paid through local real estate taxes for the above project. In his opinion request, Mr. Elseth wrote that he hand delivered the data request to the City on August 4, 2004. He further stated, To date, over three weeks later, there has been no response of any kind by the City of Warren in regard to my request. Issue:In his request for an opinion, Mr. Elseth asked the Commissioner to address the following issue:
Discussion:Pursuant to Minnesota Statutes, section 13.03, when a government entity receives a data request from an individual who is not the subject of the data, the entity is required to respond in an appropriate and prompt manner and within a reasonable time. (See section 13.03, subdivision 2(a), and Minnesota Rules, section 1205.0300.) In his comments to the Commissioner, Mr. Brooks wrote, The City has sent the attached letter to Mr. Elseth regarding a time for him to review documents. This should be considered our response to his request to you. We are attempting to set up a meeting. Mr. Brooks' letter to Mr. Elseth is dated September 17, 2004. It states: This is to notify you that the documents in your request of August 4th, 2004 are ready for your review and can be reviewed at City Hall from 9 A.M. to Noon on September 23rd, 2004. If additional time is needed, a time can be arranged on the 23rd. Mr. Brooks further notified IPAD that Mr. Elseth was unable to review the data on September 23, 2004, and that, as of September 22, the inspection date had been rescheduled for September 29. As stated above, when an individual requests access to data of which s/he is not the subject, government entities must respond within a reasonable time. Here, Mr. Elseth delivered his request to the City on August 4, 2004. The City did not communicate with Mr. Elseth about his request until September 17, 2004. In the Commissioner's opinion, this is not timely. If the City and Mr. Elseth have not yet set up a time for him to inspect the data, the City promptly should contact him and do so. Opinion:Based on the facts and information provided, my opinion on the issue that Mr. Elseth raised is as follows:
Signed:
Kent Allin
Dated: October 8, 2004 |
