I need to change the above just a bit, today need read "and women Mumble"
Need to be fair and today will be a prime example of that. I am going to show some of the asinine comments made by Ms. Powell this morning (Tuesday). The absolute unwillingness to do "Research" and absolute willingness to lie to you folks is what gets her and members of THE GROUP into trouble. The following may seem so bland and boring to many of you, but is so necessary for you to understand who is really trying to help and who is just out for the attention? Will start with hers and than my comment in RED.
"It has been my experience (Our Ms. Powell), in doing research and written FOIA submissions to the EPA and the WVDEP which has been evident that there are some that do not know how things are handled within our government. These agencies, as well as the city by law, do not have to give you what you ask for and they have the right to contact you by phone instead of written correspondence as an FOIA response. This was stated to me by a person with the EPA and with the WVDEP even though you state you want to have written documentation sent to you of the conversation they will not give it to you and by law if you are contacted by phone even if you ask as for a written document regarding the conversation the FOIA is fulfilled from them with the telephone conversation".
This is right out of the latest version of the Freedom of Information Law- 2017. I will put some comments into the Law below in BLACK BOLD as they are part of the FOIA Law and RED as any explanation I wish to advise you of in that section.
"CHAPTER 29B. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION.ARTICLE 1. PUBLIC RECORDS.
§29B-1-1. Declaration of policy.
Pursuant to the fundamental philosophy of the American Constitutional form of representative government which holds to the principle that government is the servant of the people, and not the master of them, it is hereby declared to be the public policy of the State of West Virginia that all persons are, unless otherwise expressly provided by law, entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those who represent them as public officials and employees. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The prior sentence TOTALLY blows away Ms. Powell's B.S. on what the DEP or ANY State Entity can decide arbitrarily. I can NOT speak for the EPA (Federal), as they have a much higher authorization on what can be exempted. But the EPA also has limits. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments of government they have created. To that end, the provisions of this article shall be liberally construed with the view of carrying out the above declaration of public policy.
§29B-1-2. Definitions. As used in this article:
(4) "Public body" means every state officer, agency, department, including the executive, legislative and judicial departments, division, bureau, board and commission; every county and city governing body, school district, special district, municipal corporation, and any board, department, commission council or agency thereof; and any other body which is created by state or local authority or which is primarily funded by the state or local authority. Paragraph (4) is self explanatory and means "Every" to include the DEP/ Vienna.
(5) "Public record" includes any writing containing information prepared or received by a public body, the content or context of which, judged either by content or context, relates to the conduct of the public's business. Again, self explanatory.
§29B-1-3. Inspection and copying of public record; requests of Freedom of Information Act requests registry. (a) Every person has a right to inspect or copy any public record of a public body in this state, except as otherwise expressly provided by section four of this article. Section 4 is a list of "Exemptions" that allow documents to be excluded. It is somewhat lengthy, but applies through my personal observations to have little to do with what is being requested here. It will be an "OUT" for Vienna as they try to hide some things that have been decided by the WVSC to not be valid exemptions anyway. In simple terms, the City has to give them up. As far as any "legitimate" FOIA by Ms. Powell, and the DEP/ Vienna, I would question but after talking to her for a bit know they can get away with just about any standard they wish to apply to her request?
(b) A request to inspect or copy any public record of a public body shall be made directly to the custodian of such public record.
(c) The custodian of any public records, unless otherwise expressly provided by statute, shall furnish proper and reasonable opportunities for inspection and examination of the records in his or her office and reasonable facilities for making memoranda or abstracts therefrom, (In my dealings with some State Agencies, they have provided me with a source to find what I am looking for. In some, the Agency has tried to sandbag me by referencing an entire State Law to have to search through. Dealing with the State Auditor's Office, it took me three (3), tries but they finally gave me the data I was looking for in a localized section, versus the whole Law. State Agencies will also offer to send copies of documents, but ONLY after you have paid for the requested items. And than, you may have to be very, very careful of what you are getting?), during the usual business hours, to all persons having occasion to make examination of them. The custodian of the records may make reasonable rules and regulations necessary for the protection of the records and to prevent interference with the regular discharge of his or her duties. If the records requested exist in magnetic, electronic or computer form, the custodian of the records shall make copies available on magnetic or electronic media, if so requested. (The three (3), most important words in the above two (2), sentences are "if so requested". This because YOU as the "Requestor" have the right to ask for any format YOU want IF it is available? NOT the Governmental Entity. Most will have one or more of the above. Myself, I always stayed with the old fashioned "hard copy" called "Paper". I will go back and forth through the pages and have found I can not do that with many of the above options).
(d) All requests for information must state with reasonable specificity (This can be a bit tough as I have had the City "force" me to find "exact" Report Titles to get the data I have asked for and still to this day have not received for some FOIAs the information sought). The custodian, upon demand for records made under this statute, shall as soon as is practicable but within a maximum of five days (State Agencies are pretty good about this 5 day thing. The City will run them out for weeks), not including Saturdays, Sundays or legal holidays:
(1) Furnish copies of the requested information (This is not going to happen that I have ever found?. Will as I noted above advise cost per document page/ sheet/ etc. and how they will than be sent to you IF you do not want to go somewhere to review and choose? );
(2) Advise the person making the request of the time and place at which he or she may inspect and copy the materials; or
(3) Deny the request stating in writing the reasons...…..
It should be obvious that Ms. Powell is again, yet again throwing her infamous CRAP against the wall to see not just what sticks, but how naive' you folks are? The people who are allowed on her site will pretty much eat the CRAP up because they do not take anytime to check anything for themselves? Some who read both of our sites know she is lying but because she is "allowing" them to be on her site, and want the chance to do whatever, just remain silent. I do not care who comments on this site as long as they do not Curse badly (some is actually a good emphasis, but few, very few), or to make any type of threat to anyone.
Her entire posting was so long and so partially full of "Misrepresentations, Misdirection, Deceit, Deception and in cases outright Lies, that I can not reply to all of it today.
Was advised to me about 7:30 P.M., Tuesday by one driving down past Waverly that Mr. Leach the Senior has put up an Election Sign. So I guess we are officially off and running? 'nuff said'.