November 21, 2000; City of Greenwood
11/21/2000 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 October 5, 2000, IPA received a letter from X. In this letter, X asked the Commissioner to issue an advisory opinion regarding his/her right to gain access to certain data maintained by the City of Greenwood. In response to X's request, IPA, on behalf of the Commissioner, wrote to Robert J. Larson, Administrator of the City. (The City of Deephaven provides a variety of services, including providing public access to data, to the City of Greenwood.) The purposes of this letter, dated October 5, 2000, were to inform him of X'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, X wrote to Mr. Larson, asking to inspect all of the public and private data Greenwood maintains about X. X also expressed concern about the accuracy of meeting minutes of a particular Greenwood City Council meeting. As of October 3, 2000, the date of X's opinion request, s/he had not received a response from the City. In his response to the Commissioner, Mr. Larson wrote: Upon receiving [X's] September 11, 2000 letter, I personally attempted to contact [X] via telephone. [X's] telephone voice-mail system activated, at which point I left a detailed message stating the purpose of my call. I further explained that the official, written minutes of the Greenwood City Council meeting do not contain any information about the incident in question, but that [X] was welcome to obtain a copy of them to verify this or to contact me if [s/he] had any questions. Unfortunately, [X] failed to return my call. Issue:In his/her request for an opinion, X asked the Commissioner to address the following issue:
Discussion:Pursuant to Minnesota Statutes, section 13.04, subdivision 3, upon request for access to government data by a data subject, the responsible authority must comply with the request within ten working days. X asked for access to all data maintained about him/her in a letter dated September 11, 2000. According to X, the City did not respond at all to that request. According to Mr. Larson, he left X a telephone message related to X's concerns about data about him/her contained in City Council meeting minutes, to which X did not respond. Mr. Larson did not address the issue of X's access to all other City data of which X is the subject. Mr. Larson did not state whether the date of that telephone call was within ten working days of receipt of X's request. 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, without delay, to provide X the opportunity to inspect all of the public and private data it maintains about X. As noted in Advisory Opinion 00-059, 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 also Advisory Opinions 00-030, 00-028, 00-026, 00-021 and 00-015.) Therefore, it would have been helpful in this situation if the City of Greenwood had recorded its attempt to contact [X] in writing, in order to document its response to X's request. Opinion:Based on the facts and information provided, my opinion on the issue raised by X is as follows:
Signed: David F. Fisher
Dated: November 21, 2000 |
