Sam Adolphsen

From: Sent: To: Subject: Attachments: Sam Adolphsen Thursday, February 17, 2011 3:03 PM 'dmccormick@mainehousing.org' FOIA Request: Payroll and Expenditures 1998 - 2010 MSHA FOIA - February 17, 2011.docx

Director McCormick, I am writing to request some public information from your organization. Please find attached the official FOIA letter. I am asking under Maines Freedom of Access Act, for the following public data in electronic format (MS Excel compatible):

For all employees of The Maine State Housing Authority please provide the following data for each year for calendar years 1998 2010: o first name o middle initial o last name o job class title o position number o department/division o department/division number o sum of regular wages o sum of actual stipends paid (using a reasonable persons standard of what constitutes a wage stipend) o sum of overtime pay o cost of benefits (by category of benefit, if possible) o current hire date For each expenditure (check written) by the Maine State Housing Authority please provide the following data for each year for fiscal years 1998 2010 including: o Vendor Name o Vendor Address o Vendor City o Vendor State o Vendor Zip Code o Department/division that made the expenditure o Category of expense o Total Amount of each expenditure

If you have any questions at all, or would like to discuss this request, please feel free to give me a call on my cell phone at (207) 975-6617. Thanks,

Sam Adolphsen Director, Center for Open Government The Maine Heritage Policy Center (207) 975-6617 MaineOpenGov.org- Maine government spending down to the agency, person and penny.

Sam Adolphsen
From: Sent: To: Subject: John Bobrowiecki [jbobrowiecki@mainehousing.org] Tuesday, February 22, 2011 4:18 PM Sam Adolphsen FOAA Request: Payroll and Expenditures 1998 - 2010

Mr. Adolphsen: Your Freedom of Access Request to Dale McCormick, Executive Director, Maine State Housing Authority, was forwarded to me for action. I am writing to give you an estimate as to the time and therefore expense involved as well as to ask for some clarification. As to the information regarding employees, we have information from 2004-the present in Excel-compatible form for most of the information requested; the benefit information is for total benefits. We can provide that information quite quickly and economically. We believe records from 1998-2003 would require extensive searching and redaction as the records are in either paper form or a form where personal contact information may be imbedded in the records. Such information is exempt from disclosure. Regarding expenditure information for operating expenses, we have information for 2004 and after readily available. I am assuming when you added the parenthetic "(check written)" after expenditure you did not intend to limit the request to checks; many of our expenses are paid by electronic transfer. Prior to that time the information may be paper format and would require extensive searching and redaction. Additionally, any information kept in paper form would be supplied in paper form and you would incur copying costs for those copies. By way of background, we also have programmatic expenditures for low income individuals such as housing benefits and low income heating assistance payments. The names and addresses of these recipients are confidential and exempt under the Freedom of Access Act. Please let me know if you wish your request to extend to these programmatic expenditures. In accordance with the statute we estimate that a response to your request for information about employees and expenditures since 2004 would require 250 hours to compile resulting in a charge of $2,500. A complete search back to 1998 would be at least an additional $5,000 due to the format in which it was saved. Both figures are estimates. Additionally, a search back to 1998 would incur copying costs. Due to the size of the request we would require payment in advance. In accordance with the statute we will begin our search upon receiving the payment as well as your clarification as to the nature and duration of the request. We believe it will require 60-90 days to comply with a 2004-present request and likely the same amount of additional time if the request is back to 1998. Both are estimates. Please contact me with how you wish to proceed and if you have any questions. reached at 624-5710. I look forward to working with you. John S. Bobrowiecki, Jr. Counsel Maine State Housing Authority I can be

Sam Adolphsen
From: Sent: To: Subject: John Bobrowiecki [jbobrowiecki@mainehousing.org] Wednesday, March 23, 2011 12:00 PM Sam Adolphsen MAINE HERITAGE POLICY CENTER FOAA

Sam, As you requested last Thursday, MaineHousing has refined the estimate of time it will take to provide Maine Heritage Policy Center with payroll/benefit and expenditure information for 2004 through 2010. The total estimated time, due to the volume of our yearly program activity and the amount of personally identifiable information that by law will have to be redacted, is 371 hours. The breakdown you asked for is as follows: Payroll & Benefit Information (2004-2010) = 42 hours. Expenditure Information (2004-2010) = 330 hours. John Bobrowiecki Counsel

Maine Housing Authority FOIA Timeline

February 17, 2011 - Sam Adolphsen submits FOIA to MSHA Director Dale McCormick by e-mail requesting 1998 - 2010 data.

February 22, 2011 - MSHA General Council John Bobrowiecki replies with e-mail stating that MSHA can provide 2004 -2010 Payroll and Expenditures "quite quickly and economically" and says "we have information for 2004 and after readily available".

February 22nd, 2011 - later on in the same e-mail, Mr. Bobrowiecki states that, "In accordance with the statute we estimate that a response to your request for information about employees and expenditures since 2004 would require 250 hours to compile resulting in a charge of $2,500. A complete search back to 1998 would be at least an additional $5,000 due to the format in which it was saved.

March 7, 2011 - Sam Adolphsen replies to Mr. Bobrowiecki, asking for a meeting with MSHA to discuss the FOIA in greater detail. Mr. Bobrowiecki replies that "We can be available on Thursday March 17th"

March 17, 2011 - Tarren Bragdon and Sam Adolphsen meet with MSHA council John Bobrowiecki at MSHA to discuss the FOIA request in greater detail. Mr. Bragdon asks Mr. Bobrowiecki to have the accounting team take a second look at the estimate to complete the FOIA, citing abnormally high estimated costs for complying. Mr. Bobrowicki agrees to have accounting revisit the estimate.

March 23, 2011 - John Bobrowiecki emails Sam Adolphsen with "refined estimate of time it will take to provide Maine Heritage Policy Center with payroll/benefit and expenditure information for 2004 through 2010." The "refined" estimate turns out to be much more than the orginal. "The total estimated time...is 371 hours." Total cost: 371 hours x $10 per hour - first hour free = $3,700 for six years of public data.