District 833 Data Request Conundrum - Part 2 of 3

District 833 has the information; but it will cost you!

 Guidelines on how to request data from a government entity can be found on the website for the Information Policy Analysis Division or IPAD.  According to IPAD, under the Data Practices Act (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13), you have the right to request information from a government entity and the data must be kept in such a way as to be easily accessible.

In Part 1 of this series, you learned that acquiring information from a government agency isn't always easy and may require requesting a data practices advisory opinion from IPAD.  The Commissioner of Administration has authority to issue non-binding advisory opinions on certain issues related to the Data Practices Act (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13). No fee is required.  Isn't that a breath of fresh air?  Let's take a look at how this is accomplished:

To make a request from IPAD:

• Write (email or letter) to the Commissioner of Administration, c/o IPAD at info.ipad@state.mn.us or 50 Sherburne Ave, 201 Admin Bldg., St. Paul, MN 55155
• State that you are requesting an advisory opinion.
• Explain the facts briefly. Provide a clear, concise statement of your position/analysis of the issues. State the issues you want the Commissioner to address.
• Provide copies of any related documentation or correspondence, including a copy of the original data request (if applicable) and any response, as well as citations to any relevant statutes, rules, or case law. Minnesota's process does not allow for rebuttals, so this is your opportunity to submit a complete explanation and all relevant documentation that you want the Commissioner to consider in the opinion.
• Please let us know if you are involved in litigation relating to the data practices issue. The Commissioner will not issue an opinion if a court will be evaluating the matter. 
• The Commissioner does not accept anonymous opinion requests.  (If your request is accepted and the data at issue reveal private data about you, the opinion can refer to you using a pseudonym.)

Once your request is received, the Commissioner of Administration will evaluate it:

• The Commissioner’s authority to issue advisory opinions is permissive.  This means the Commissioner has the right to refuse your opinion request.  If the Commissioner rejects your opinion request, IPAD will mail you a letter within five business days.
• If the Commissioner needs more information to move forward with your opinion request, IPAD will contact you.
• If the Commissioner accepts your request, IPAD will send you a confirmation letter.     

In Part 1 of this series, you may remember that the Commissioner ruled against the city of Silver Bay when they charged a requester :

Administrator Rate: $32.15 × 1 1/2 hours = $48.22
Deputy Clerk Rate: $22.11 × 1 3/4 hours = 38.69

The opinion issued by IPAD was:

The City of Silver Bay did not comply with Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13, when it charged $86.91 to retrieve and copy 109 pages of government data. If the two requests were each for fewer than 100 pages, the City may not charge more than $.25 per page, or $27.25. If one request was for more than 100 pages, the City may charge its actual, reasonable cost to provide copies of those data.

MN Hockey Mama Advocates for our Community:

We received the following emails from a community member who requested a few enrollment numbers from Mr. Pyan, District 833 Finance Director.

From: xxxxxxxxx
To: dpyan0@sowashco.k12.mn.us
Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2015 10:21:39 AM
Subject: info requested

Mr Pyan,

Can you please tell me the number of open enrolled students being educated at District 833 schools and provide a break down of their home districts?  Thank you.

xxxxxxx

 Barb Brown, Director of Communication response to the request:

From: "Barbara Brown" <bbrown6@sowashco.k12.mn.us>
To: xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2015 11:15:44 AM
Subject: Your data request

Hello xxx xxxxxxx

I wanted to let you know that your request for data has been forwarded to me.

We have a process for such requests. The form can be found at:  http://www.sowashco.k12.mn.us/services/communications/forms-procedures.

Once completed, please forward it to me. You should be aware that we are able to charge for the time it takes to pull the data and .25 per copy for the data, so I will provide you with an estimate prior to completing the request.***See comment below!

Thank you.

Barb Brown

Barbara J. Brown
Director of Communications
South Washington County Schools
District Service Center

Phone:  651-458-6209    Fax:  651-458-6318     
www.sowashco.k12.mn.us
ISD833: Serving all or parts of the communities of Cottage Grove, Newport, St. Paul Park, Woodbury, Afton, Denmark and Grey Cloud Island - Eastern suburbs of St. Paul, Minnesota.

***Comment:  According to Statute 13.03 subdivision 3 (c)  is District 833 complying with the law?

"However, if 100 or fewer pages of black and white, letter or legal size paper copies are requested, actual costs shall not be used, and instead, the responsible authority may charge no more than 25 cents for each page copied"

From: xxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 2:48 PM
To: Brown, Barbara
Subject: Re: Your data request

Barb,

I am just looking for numbers, I thought I recalled them being mentioned at a facilities or a budget meeting in the recent past and a breakdown of how many students were coming from each district.

Thanks!

xxxxxxx

 From: "Barbara Brown" <bbrown6@sowashco.k12.mn.us>
To: xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2015 3:20:24 PM
Subject: RE: Your data request

I know that we have the numbers and I will follow through and pursue this for you. We just ask for the Data Request form to track all of the data that people are receiving from the district. I know a report can be pulled that would include where they are from, but that is what we are able to charge for if it is not readily available.

If you need to talk through this, feel free to contact me at the number below.

Thank you.

Barb

Barbara J. Brown
Director of Communications
South Washington County Schools
District Service Center

Phone:  651-458-6209    Fax:  651-458-6318 
www.sowashco.k12.mn.us
ISD833: Serving all or parts of the communities of Cottage Grove, Newport, St. Paul Park, Woodbury, Afton, Denmark and Grey Cloud Island - Eastern suburbs of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Phone call to District 833 reveals rate District 833 charges to retrieve data for the concerned community member.

"These are the emails to and from Barbara Brown.  I did call her and she stated that it would cost me the lowest paid person's wage for the time that it took to pull it together.  When I inquired as to what that rate of pay was, I was told $28-30 per hour.  HOLY CRAP!  I want to work for the school district!"

Why the Cost Discrepancy Between Requesters?

From: "Brown, Barbara" <bbrown6@sowashco.k12.mn.us>
Date: January 13, 2015 at 3:39:46 PM CST
To: xxxxxxx
Subject: FW: Data Requests

xxxxxx

This is to confirm receipt of your email earlier today, Jan. 13. Rather than complete an invoice, I’m resending (below) the full response to the fees for data requests that was sent to you on Wednesday, Dec. 10. As that email states:

1.    Regarding your request for personal data, we would not have a specific charge available until you confirmed the emails (and based on the time it took to search for and retrieve those emails) that we would be able to charge you for. Plus any fee for a flash drive and/or the cost of ensuring a virus scan of a personal flash drive.

2.    The fee for information gathering for documents from the Long Range Facility Process, your second data request, would be $48.80.

Please let me know if you have any questions in this regard or the next steps you’d like to take.

Thank you.

Barb Brown

Barbara J. Brown
Director of Communications
South Washington County Schools
District Service Center

Phone:  651-458-6209    Fax:  651-458-6318     
www.sowashco.k12.mn.us
ISD833: Serving all or parts of the communities of Cottage Grove, Newport, St. Paul Park, Woodbury, Afton, Denmark and Grey Cloud Island - Eastern suburbs of St. Paul, Minnesota.

As you can see, one requester is charged $48.80 per hour by District 833 to gather data while another is charged $28-$30 per hour.   Shouldn't we all receive equal treatment under the law? Why make data requests difficult when the law clearly states that data must be easily accessible to the general public?  It appears as if District 833 is trying to discourage taxpayers from asking for information.

Subscribe to MN Hockey Mama for Part 3 of the series.

 Ridiculous redactions on data requested from the 2013 Black Panther announcement will be revealed as will the IPAD advisory opinion necessary for the South Washington County Bulletin to receive data on the resignation of East Ridge High School Principal, Aaron Harper. 

The Unintended Consequences of Mandatory Voting

During a speech on Wednesday, March 18, 2015, President Obama suggested that mandatory voting 

“...would be transformative if everybody voted,” Mr. Obama said during a town-hall event in Cleveland. “That would counteract [campaign] money more than anything. If everybody voted, then it would completely change the political map in this country.” (Washington Times)

Other than the fact that, as Senator Rubio has pointed out, mandatory voting flies in the face of First Amendment Rights - Freedom of Speech includes choosing to NOT go to the polls - it would seem that our leader hasn't really thought this idea through.  Perhaps he was channeling Joe Biden and forgot to engage his inner censor that day?  One way in which Obama is correct is the idea that mandatory voting would, in fact, "completely change the political map in this country" due to the following reasons:

1. Voter ID.  The push for Voter ID has been attacked for years by democrats claiming that requiring voters to have a state-issued identification card is disenfranchising to the poor, minorities, etc.  If the state were to start requiring people to vote, there would have to be a system in place to track whether the people were following the law or not - hello, Voter ID.  Sorry, Dems, but your policy of "vote early, vote often" would die with this measure as would all the dead/illegal/felon votes that are utilized in virtually every major election now days. (How else does one explain the 119% voter turn-out in Madison, Wisconsin last time around?)

2.  GOTV efforts would die.  No longer would campaigns need to hire all those interns to call every eligible voter, no more GOTV music concerts from left-leaning celebrities, no more vans pulling into homeless shelters to get people to the polls - all would be unnecessary if voting were required and not a privilege.  How would all those community activists be trained without the "grass-roots" GOTV experiences?  Would they be retrained as IRS agents instead? If voting was mandatory, obviously there would have to be a punishment for not voting in place - perhaps a "fee" like the Obamacare tax penalty? So all those lost little democrat activists could just go straight to working for big government right out of the chute instead.  Call it a "jobs program."

3.  Unlike what Obama claims as an impetus for the idea, campaign money would flow even more freely and wildly - if there's roughly 200 million eligible voters in the USA and all those voters are required to vote, it would seem to reason that even more money would be pumped into the campaigns, not less, since those candidates would have to work even harder to make sure that all their potential constituents knew their names.  The flipside of this would also be the potential for the minor parties - i.e. Libertarian, Independence, Green, etc. to grow in power.  If one leans libertarian but feels that since it is not a party with a lick of power, one typically will vote for either a GOP or Democrat candidate that most closely aligns with one's own values, right?  However, if EVERYONE has to vote, than perhaps one of the unintended consequences would be that more people would vote with their "true party" and not just with the big two parties currently in power.

4. More Americans consider themselves "Conservative" than "Liberal." This could also cause another unintended consequence: 38% of Americans call themselves "Conservative" versus only 23% calling themselves "Liberal."  So, if every eligible voter in the USA were required to vote, how would that swing the political landscape as we know it?  Certainly it would most likely mean that President Obama himself would probably not have been elected President, especially considering the potential power of the smaller political parties to draw voters away from either of the major party candidates.  This, of course, is something we could never know for sure, but the thought is interesting.

5.  Imagine the impact that mandatory voting would have on local elections.  In South Washington County in 2013 only about 10,000 out of the 65,000 eligible voters voted in the school board and levy referendum election.  There are school board members who were elected with fewer than 3000 votes overseeing nearly a quarter of a billion dollar school district budget.  (There's also one who was appointed and not even elected, but I digress...) Those 10,000 voters passed two of the three levies on the ballot - but the ones which passed did not pass with a large margin.  One of the unintended consequences of Obama's suggestion of mandatory voting could be the defeat of levy referendums and teachers' unions.  No longer would elections held with polling places in schools swing toward the unions' and district administrations' favor.  Whatever would they do if that happened?

With this White House, the mere fact that Obama suggested mandatory voting is a bit scary (though Josh Earnest has since walked back Obama's statements) for those of us who have not enjoyed the past six years due to the massive rights infringements (Obamacare/NSA/Net Neutrality/etc.) inflicted on freedom-loving Americans.  It would seem that the next step, in Obama's little world anyway, would be to require voting of the "right" person as well - the person of the establishment's choosing, not of our own.

Voting is a privilege and the American people should be able to choose whether they want to join in on elections or not.  Mandating voting is only the first step before only offering one option on a ballot.


Updated March 20, 2015 3:09pm

District 833 Data Request Conundrum - Part 1 of 3

The education children are receiving today may surprise most parents.  Many assume that if a school looks great from the outside, great things must be happening on the inside.  One thing is certain; we spend way too much money on education and the results are pathetic. It is estimated that the state of Minnesota will spend $17.7 billion on education in 2015.  Total spending in 2014 for South Washington School District 833 was over $250 million.  With such large amounts of cash flowing into local school districts, the opportunity for wasteful spending and misallocation of funds has proven to be too much of a temptation for many teachers and administrators.  

 

An article in the Star Tribune placed a spotlight on questionable spending in the Minneapolis school district when it was found that nearly half of expense reports lacked supporting documentation, even though this was against district policy. Tenure allows these people to remain handcuffed to the classroom so breaking a few rules isn’t much of an issue.  To obtain the information necessary to shine the light on this wasteful spending, the Star Tribune made use of a data request under Minnesota Statutes Section 13.43.  The data request can also be a powerful tool for the average citizen, allowing them to become a watchdog over their local school district.

Guidelines on how to request data from a government entity can be found on the website for the Information Policy Analysis Division or IPAD.  According to IPAD, under the Data Practices Act (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13), you have the right to request information from a government entity.  If you are seeking information regarding yourself or your minor child (in data practices terms, you are referred to as the data subject), you have the right to access the data free of charge.   Advocating for your child becomes even more important when you or your child have been bullied or manipulated by administrators, special education teachers or school psychologists.  The manipulation of parents and taxpayers needs to be exposed so that we can advocate for students and our community.

 School districts are required to have a Data PracticesCompliance Official and the district must keep all data in such a way that it is easily accessible to the general public. Examples of written requests may be found on the IPAD website. Districts may require you to fill out a simple form which can be mailed or faxed to the Compliance Official.  You may request to inspect data free of charge before making the decision to request digital or hard copies of the information. If you or your children are the subject of a data search, the school does not have the right to charge you for searching and retrieving the information and may only charge for the actual cost of making, certifying and compiling of copies.

Data requests are a good way to keep tabs on the dirty little secrets districts love to hide.  However, don’t be surprised, if during the course of inspection, unexpected issues arise.  Problems receiving data, especially if it’s for a controversial subject that may jeopardize the integrity of the school district may be experienced.  When this occurs, an appeal may be made to the state IPAD agency for an advisory opinion.  IPAD does not have the authority to force the district to comply with the decision but you will then have the option to file a complaint in district court or with the Office of Administrative Hearings.

The OAH advisory opinion below was issued in 2007 regarding the right to gain access to certain data from the City of Silver Bay.  In a letter dated November 30, 2006, the Silver Bay City Administrator enclosed an invoice, and requested prepayment.  The requester, Mr. Mealey,  received copies of 109 pages, for which the City charged the following to retrieve and copy:

Administrator Rate: $32.15 × 1 1/2 hours = $48.22
Deputy Clerk Rate: $22.11 × 1 3/4 hours = 38.69 

 The total charge to retrieve and copy 109 pages was $86.91. In his opinion request, Mr. Mealey questioned the reasonableness of the City charging copy costs at the Administrator and Deputy Clerk's hourly rates given that "[t]here are two additional employees in the city office, both of whom are lesser paid . . . I believe that either of the lesser paid employees were capable of performing the task." Mr. Mealey wrote, "[f]urther, it appears that the data requested was not kept easily accessible because it took a total of 3 1/4 man-hours to retrieve and copy 107 [sic] pages of data." 

  Silver Bay City Administrator comments:

 I believe we strictly complied with the statute. In my experience, as the Silver Bay City Administrator, this was the first request for copies of government documents this office has ever received. As the Responsible Authority I believed I had the responsibility to personally address Mr. Mealey's request and to designate a member of my staff that could most competently and efficiently search for, retrieve and copy the data requested. It was my opinion that the Deputy Clerk-Treasurer was that person, since she handles the finances, receives and pays all bills. I did not feel that the other two lower paid employees could as efficiently do so in the same period of time.

The City Attorney sends a statement each month for its retainer and expenses together with a detail of time. There are usually separate billings for special services in addition to the monthly retainer. The each [sic] of the statements usually consists of two to three pages stapled together. Those statement [sic] are placed in a packet with other bills and submitted to the Council for approval. The total City bills average one hundred per month. After approval, the bills are paid by the Deputy Clerk. All paid bills are assembled and placed in monthly packets. Those packets are readily accessible. After the year end audit they are placed in the archives. To meet Mr. Mealey's request, it was necessary for the Deputy Clerk to go to the archives, search through the bills and retrieve the monthly paid bills of Johnson & Morris for November and December 2005. She would have to go through the packet of approximately 100 bills to pull out the Johnson & Morris bills. She would do the same for each month's packet from January through October of 2006. Since the Johnson & Morris bills usually were stapled, it would be necessary to remove the staples to copy. The 1-3/4 hours of time involved in searching for, retrieving and copying the requested data is most conservative and reasonable.

As the Responsible Authority, I believed I had a duty to take the time to review the material to make certain it was complete and to participate in the search and retrieval of the requested data.

Mr. Mealey also requested 'a copy of the retainer fee schedule . . . for services provided by the law firm . . . to become effective January 1, 2007' and 'all communications from [the firm] regarding their request for an increase in their retainer fees.' Since I attend all Council Meetings, where these matters were discussed, I felt I could most efficiently secure this material myself. It was necessary to go through correspondence over a period of time to search for, retrieve and make copies.

I was being most conservative in a charge of only 1 1/2; hours for my time. I did not charge Mr. Mealey for the actual cost to the City of my time or for that of the Deputy Clerk. I only charged the actual wage costs. We could have charged the full labor costs of wages and benefits in order to compensate the city for 'actual costs of searching for and retrieving government data.'

 The City' of Silver Bay's actual hourly labor costs are: City Administrator, $46.20; Deputy Clerk-Treasurer, $34.36; Assistant Deputy Clerk, $28.38.

Issue:

 Based on Mr. Mealy's opinion request, the Commissioner agreed to address the following issue: Did the City of Silver Bay comply with Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13, when it charged $86.91 to retrieve and copy 109 pages of government data?

Opinion:

Based on the facts and information provided, my opinion on the issues that Mr. Mealey raised is as follows:

The City of Silver Bay did not comply with Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13, when it charged $86.91 to retrieve and copy 109 pages of government data. If the two requests were each for fewer than 100 pages, the City may not charge more than $.25 per page, or $27.25. If one request was for more than 100 pages, the City may charge its actual, reasonable cost to provide copies of those data.

Signed:
Dana B. Badgerow
Commissioner
Dated: January 12, 2007

Is District 833 Complying With Data Requests

In 2013, a group of concerned individuals began utilizing the Minnesota Data Information Act in order to gain access to public documents the district really didn’t want to share.  In fact, one such request was met with a letter from Dr. Jacobus himself, demanding that the only way the request would be fulfilled was for the person issuing the request to pay over $1500 for the copying of the requested information – which was in direct disobedience to the law.

 The use of technology in the information age should make acquiring data a snap and cost effective, which makes the $1,500 charge to receive information perplexing. Administrators continue to push for more funding despite the fact that test scores and other evaluations continue to decline and conflict among students continue to escalate. Putting the thumb-screws to the watchdogs of our communities might be an attempt to provide cover for these government monstrosities whose appetite for taxpayer funds will never be satisfied. 

This is part 1 of a three part series, so sign up for updates to keep informed.  The information we have received from you on monstrous overcharges and ridiculous redactions are coming soon.

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